By Tim Binnall
NASA's Mars Perseverance rover made a rather surprising and somewhat disheartening discovery while roaming around on the Red Planet: a piece of trash. The odd find was shared on social media Wednesday afternoon by the team operating the exploratory vehicle. Described as "something unexpected," they explained that the shiny-looking debris is "a piece of a thermal blanket" that protected the rover during its fiery descent in February of last year. The curious discovery, NASA said, is something of a man-made mystery as the rover actually landed a little over a mile away from where the piece of thermal blanket was found.
As such, the space agency conceded that they are left to wonder whether the debris wound up in its current spot at that time or "was it blown here by the wind?" Beyond the riddle surrounding this particular piece of trash, the find caused some consternation online as it follows the discovery of a drill bit that was dumped by the rover earlier this year as well as the craft's discarded landing gear. This has led some to lament that it would seem that humans can't help but litter, whether its here on Earth or out in space.