Space fans were over the moon today after spotting what they thought was a mysterious object on Mars.
Eagle-eyed internet users spotted a cylinder-shaped piece of debris in one of the photos taken by Nasa's Perseverance rover - and it was all systems go to discuss what it could be.
One person on Twitter said it looked "artificially created", and suggested it could be an artefact of ancient civilisation on the Red Planet, or a chunk of a crashed UFO.
But while theories spiralled, space fans were brought firmly down to Earth after discovering the item in fact belongs to Nasa, and was dropped intentionally.
The piece is a so-called "launch abrasion bit" which was apparently dumped on the ground back in July.
However, it appears to have fallen over since that time.
The perseverance team previously tweeted: "This particular drill bit was installed before launch, to close out the drill and keep the inside protected.
"To keep my science clean and clear, I'm leaving it aside before I start to collect samples with new, pristine drill bits."
Others were quick to slam the space agency for "littering" on the planet.
"While I very much appreciate the science behind all of this and what we are learning, (very fascinating!), are we keeping track of where we are leaving all of our stuff? Someone at some point needs to clean this all up." one person wrote.
"Haven't even stepped foot on the planet yet and we're already littering," another person said.
Another pointed out that Mars is a "robot graveyard" because of all old mission gadgets that have been left behind over the years.
"I mean it's not like any of the probes and rover we sent were ever brought back," they said.
