NASA Curiosity Rover Snaps Strange Picture on Mars, Spurs Extraterrestrial Speculation

The Mars Curiosity Rover photographed some interesting pictures on April 2 and 3 that have many believers of extraterrestrial life talking. The picture in question featured a bright light shining from Mars surface in the distance.

Despite NASA claiming that the presence of this light is not uncommon, it's not stopping others from fueling conversation of life on Mars. Curiosity Rover mission spokesman Guy Webster told the San Francisco Chronicle that pictures with bright spots show up nearly every week. The pictures were taken by the rover's "right eye" stereoscope camera that was focused on a nearby ridge.

Unfortunately, the rover moves at a very slow pace - approximately 200 meters per day - so it's likely the source of the light will never be identified, but Scott C. Waring believes he may have some answers. The UFO advocate posted the photo on his website "UFO Sighting Daily."

"This could indicate there is intelligent life below the ground and uses light as we do," Waring wrote in his blog. "This is not a glare from the sun, nor is it an artifact of the photo process."

But Guy Webster rebutted with a more scientific explanation: "One possibility is that the light is the glint from a rock surface reflecting the sun. When these images were taken each day, the sun was in the same direction as the bright spot, west-northwest from the rover, and relatively low in the sky," he said in this Fox News article.

Additionally, some believe the light could have been caused by a technical error, which has been an issue on rover cameras in the past. Webster also noted that the Curiosity science team is looking into the possibility of cosmic rays coming into contact with the camera's detector as another reason for the bright spot.

It would probably take weeks for the rover to reach the scene of the photo, so it's likely we'll never know what caused the bright spot. Speculation will remain and it will likely fuel arguments for the existence of extraterrestrial life.

To read more about the photos taken by the Mars Curiosity Rover, visit this ABC News article.