Several scientific studies had previously suggested that Mars had once a healthy river system, which may have helped life to thrive and evolve. However, at present, Mars is a rocky world, and space experts believe that life forms might find it hard to survive in this harsh environment. But a section of conspiracy theorists believes that alien life is still thriving on Mars, and they allege that NASA is well aware of extraterrestrial existence on Red Planet. Adding up the heat to these theories, a UFO hunter has claimed to have discovered fungus on Mars.
Alien fungus living on Mars
The intriguing discovery has been made by Scott C Waring, a self-styled researcher who is currently operating from Taiwan. In his recent website post, Waring revealed that he discovered the alien fungus on an image taken by NASA from the Martian surface.
"I'm just chilling at my computer and found a few things that seem significant to me and hopefully it will be significant to you too. The thing that made me excited was the white fungus seen growing under the rock. Its round and tube-like, a plant stemming out to find more space to grow," wrote Waring on his website UFO Sightings Daily.
Even though the structure spotted by Waring shares some features with a mushroom, experts who analyzed the images have revealed that it could be most probably a weird-shaped rock. According to these experts, a phenomenon called pareidolia where the human brain forms recognizable images on unknown patterns is actually misleading Waring.
Mysteries surrounding Curiosity Rover images
A few months back, a study conducted by a team of international scientists had claimed to have discovered alien algae and fungi on images taken by NASA's Curiosity Rover. According to the study report published in the Journal of Astrobiology and Space Science, algae, lichens, and mushrooms were spotted in the Martian surface in at least 15 photos taken by the rover.
"There are no geological or other abiogenic forces on Earth which can produce sedimentary structures, by the hundreds, which have mushroom shapes, stems, stalks, and shed what looks like spores on the surrounding surface. In fact, fifteen specimens were photographed by NASA growing out of the ground in just three days," said Regina Dass, a researcher at the Molecular Fungal Genetics and Mycotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Pondicherry, India.
