Sam Amico
Fans of Star Wars are suddenly fans of NASA, or at least of the gadgets that NASA put on display.
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That’s right, the Star Wars community is thrilled with pictures released from Mars, and perhaps rightfully so. After all, whatever NASA put in the picture sure looks like a lightsaber. The pictures were released from the Perseverance Mars rover.
As one comment under the picture noted, “Someone dropped their lightsaber.”
That is indeed what it looked like. And you can’t help but wonder how long it will be before someone photoshops in a picture of Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader standing nearby.
Luke Skywalker? Is That You?
Meanwhile, NASA will tell you that it’s not a lightsaber, but rather, a titanium tube containing a rock sample that the rover placed on Mars’ surface. In all, 10 of those things are expected to be placed on Mars. Each is about 6 inches (or 52 centimeters) in length.
“The tubes carried in the belly of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover are destined to carry the first samples in history from another planet back to Earth,” NASA wrote. “Future scientists will use these carefully selected representatives of Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) to look for evidence of potential microbial life present in Mars’ ancient past and to answer other key questions about Mars and its history.”
In other words, the tubes may not be able to use for lightsabers, but they may just tell us if Martians exist. That’s almost as cool of a purpose.
