Buddha statue spotted on Mars?

In a rather strange finding, some have reported seeing what it appears to be a Buddha statue in recent photographs of Mars’ surface.

Of course, the more likely explanation is that this simply an ordinary rock formation that sort of kind of resembles something designed by intelligent people here on Earth, rather than signs of an ancient Mars civilization — but it still caused some interesting speculation online, according to a Huffington Post report.

A number of UFO websites seized on the photograph as signs of intelligent life, although even some self proclaimed UFOlogists wondered whether this was really a sign that could be taken to the United Nations as proof of intelligent life.

It’s actually not the first time this weird rock formation has been commented on before. NASA’s Curiosity rover took a picture of it last October, and the formation was seen amongst a group of other rocks, prompting stories on UFO websites proclaiming that a statue had been discovered on Mars.

One of them, Paranormal Crucible, even posted a video attempting to draw the statue in detail as it might appear in a clear image. The NASA image is quite blurry, so the site used colorization techniques and little imagination to rebuild it, according to the report. They suggested that perhaps it was from an advanced culture on Mars that created monuments to their gods.

Ever since the Curiosity rover landed on Mars, the photographs it has released have been subject to speculation from conspiracy theorists and UFOlogists. They have pointed to other supposedly alien artifacts in the pictures, which NASA typically dismisses as misidentified rock formations. One site claimed to see a traffic light, another a humanoid figure, and yet another a floating spoon. Some even claimed to see whole cities.