Dateline: Mars - Viking or Ufo?

[Tiassa]

The BBC's David Newhouse reports on a mysterious object sighted by rover Spirit during an atmospheric survey:

The US Spirit rover on Mars has seen a UFO streak across the Red Planet sky.

Astronomers say it could be the first meteor seen from the surface of another world, or a redundant orbiting spacecraft sent to Mars 30 years ago.

"We may never know, but we are still looking for clues," said Dr Mark Lemmon, from Texas A&M University.

Whatever it was, Spirit was lucky to catch sight of the UFO as the rover's main mission is to look downwards to study rocks and soil on the planet.

Of known artificial satellites, only Viking 2 apparently has the north-south orbit required to be this object.

Whatever it actually is--artificial satellite, meteorite, alien spaceship--it's also a quaint reminder that no matter where you are in the Universe, if you can see the sky at all, it's worth looking up every once in a while.

Ufo sighted . . . on Mars.
__________

• BBC News. "UFO streaks through Martian sky." March 18, 2004. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3520636.stm