NASA: Weird Mars lights are not a sign of life

A NASA robot has snapped pictures showing glints of light on theMartian horizon, which some UFO enthusiasts have seized on as a sign of alien lifeon the Red Planet.Not so, said the US space agency. More likely, the images of bright spots taken on April 2 and April 3 are a product ofthe sun's glare or cosmic rays, NASA said in a statement.In fact, similar glints of light are seen all the time in images taken by the Curiosityrover, a multibillion dollar unmanned vehicle equipped with cameras and drillinginstruments that is exploring Mars. "In the thousands of images we've received from Curiosity, we see ones with brightspots nearly every week," said Justin Maki of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory inPasadena, California."These can be caused by cosmic-ray hits or sunlight glinting from rock surfaces, asthe most likely explanations."Furthermore, the "bright spots appear in images from the right-eye camera of thestereo Navcam, but not in images taken within one second of those by the left-eyecamera," the space agency said in a statement.NASA's explanation may not dampen enthusiasm among believers in alien life onMars, such as the website operated by UFO Sightings Daily which said the lightscould offer proof of exterrestrial beings."This could indicate there there is intelligent life below the ground and uses light as we do," the site proclaimed.NASA's Curiosity rover landed on the dry, dusty planet in 2012 on a mission to search for signs that life may have once been able to thrive there.