Imagine stumbling upon something in an old photo album that suddenly changes everything you thought you knew.

That’s exactly what’s happening with a resurfaced image from Mars.

A picture taken over a decade ago by NASA’s Curiosity rover has sparked a new round of speculation among space enthusiasts and UFO hunters.

Why? Because it seems to show what looks a lot like a mushroom growing out of the Martian soil.

The Photo That Started It All

Back on September 19, 2013, NASA’s Curiosity rover captured an image while exploring the Martian landscape.

The image quietly sat in the archives until UFO enthusiast Scott Waring recently brought it into the spotlight.

Waring believes the object in question bears a striking resemblance to a mushroom — complete with a stem and cap, just like the fungi we know here on Earth.

“This object has a curved bottom part of a stem, same as those on Earth,” he noted, questioning why NASA didn’t further investigate something so peculiar.

Online Supporters Say It’s Proof of Life

The so-called mushroom quickly gained traction online, with some social media users throwing their full support behind Waring’s theory.

One commenter boldly declared, “Looks like a mushroom to me! NASA knows far more about Mars than they let on.”

Another chimed in with a more cosmic perspective: “If we find life on just one other planet, it proves life is likely everywhere in the universe.”

Waring even suggested NASA missed an opportunity by not prodding the object.

“They should have poked it, bumped it, knocked it over, or used that million-dollar laser they have to see what it’s made of,” he said.

What Scientists Actually Think It Is

While the idea of a Martian mushroom is exciting, experts are much more skeptical.

Dr. Gareth Dorrian, a planetary physicist from the University of Birmingham, says it’s far more likely that what we’re seeing is simply a rock sitting atop another rock.

According to Dr. Dorrian, natural forces such as wind can move sand and dust over time, revealing formations that may look unusual but are completely geological.

Similar formations happen here on Earth, especially in deserts.

Rocks That Can Look Like Mushrooms

Dr. Dorrian also pointed out that these mushroom-like shapes are common and have geological explanations.

They may be what’s known as “concretions” — structures formed billions of years ago when liquid water flowed through Martian sediment.

These compact formations are harder than the surrounding material and are often left behind as the softer rock erodes away.

This same erosion process has created “hoodoo” spires in places like the southwestern U.S., which also bear a mushroom-like appearance.

Why NASA Didn’t Investigate Further

Although it might seem like NASA missed something huge, experts say otherwise.

Features like this are fairly typical on Mars, and Curiosity has already encountered plenty of similar structures.

With its time and energy limited, the rover focuses on more promising signs of past microbial life — not random rock shapes.

Mars Is a Hostile Place for Life

Even if something on the surface looked like life, scientists caution that conditions on Mars make survival nearly impossible.

The air pressure is similar to what you’d experience 20 miles above Earth’s surface — so thin that ultraviolet radiation and cosmic rays constantly bombard the planet.

Dr. Dorrian explained that this radiation would destroy essential molecules like DNA in no time.

On top of that, temperatures swing wildly from a relatively warm 20°C (68°F) during the day to an ice-cold -100°C (-148°F) at night.

No known life on Earth can survive under those extremes, and certainly not mushrooms, which are highly sensitive to environmental conditions.

If There Is Life on Mars, It’s Hiding Underground

According to scientists, the only realistic chance for life on Mars is beneath the surface — perhaps in hidden water reserves or ice caverns where conditions are more stable and shielded from harmful radiation.

This means that the mysterious object in the photo is, in all likelihood, just a rock.

A cool-looking rock, yes, but still just a rock.

Getting to Know Mars a Little Better

To put things in perspective, here are some quick facts about the Red Planet:

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and has a thin atmosphere that makes it cold and dusty.
It has seasons, polar ice caps, massive volcanoes, and canyons, all hinting at a more active past.
A Martian day lasts about 24.6 hours, and a Martian year is 687 Earth days long.
The planet is roughly 145 million miles from the Sun and has two moons: Phobos and Deimos.
Mars has lower gravity (just 38% of Earth’s) and a surface area of nearly 56 million square miles.

So What’s Next?

For now, Curiosity continues its mission, rolling across the Martian landscape and collecting data in search of more definitive signs of life — the microbial kind, most likely buried below the surface.

As for the “Martian mushroom”?

It’s an intriguing idea, but one best left in the realm of imagination and internet debate… at least until science proves otherwise.