Tiny creature runs away from Curiosity’s drilling activities on Mars

On January 29, 2015 NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a flat rock on Mars and collected a sample from its interior.

Images were taken by the Front Hazcam right and the Front Hazcam left on board the rover and published on page SOL 882 of NASA’s website Mars Jet Propolsion Labarotary.


At first glance, it seems to be standard images showing the robotic arm which carried out a drill but if you take a closer look at the images taken by the Front Hazcam right you will notice a very small being, what could be an insect.

‘Mars Alive’ who discovered the anomaly made a time-lapse footage in which you can see that the insect is moving during the drilling activities.

Although some people suggest the anomaly is just a piece of debris due to vibration from the drill, I’m not sure if it is just a piece of debris because the legs of the insect, maybe a bug, ant or spider, are clearly visible and it looks like it runs away from the drilling activities.

A tiny living creature on Mars or just debris, here is the time-lapse footage.