Curiosity Rover Leaving Mars Rat To Do Its Own Thing - Interstellar Breakup

NASA's Curiosity Rover is going off to do its own thing...and turning its back on the Mars Rat.

The Internet has been abuzz over a photo taken on Mars of a rat...maybe...kind of...but now we'll never know.

Yes, that's right, the Rover will leave the rat behind without doing any further investigation. Apparently the nascent field of zoology on Mars has been nipped in the bud.

To be clear, the buzz is not because of any actual data or findings from NASA - just a photo and an ardent fan with an active imagination. And the actual Curiosity researchers aren't curious enough to investigate. Surprise, surprise.

An enthusiastic blogger spotted something funny-looking between rocks in a photo of Mars taken by the Curiosity Rover that looks like an animal.  Conspiracy theorists all over the Internet promptly exploded with speculation that the Red Planet holds life, particularly after the find was posted on an English-language website. Some guessed that it is an amphibian, perhaps a lizard; others are guessing "rat".

Scientists, however, shockingly begged to differ.

"Clearly, it results from, you know, a lot of things like wind erosion and mechanical abrasion and breakdown chemical weathering of the rocks, as to why they get these weird shapes," Curiosity deputy project scientist Joy Crisp, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said to reporters.  

Hopefully the rat-Rover breakup won't be too painful. After he leaves his beau behind, the robot's going to move on up Mount Sharp and test for hydrogen abundance, investigate nearby outcrops, and conduct experiments...sadly, none of which have to do with the rat.

Still, NASA's amused too - or at least glad for the publicity.

"It's fun in a way, too, in that it will attract a lot of the public to look at the images and learn a little bit about Mars by pulling them in this way," Crisp said.