NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has been travelling in conjunction with asteroid Bennu since 2018. Next month will see NASA’s spaceship collect samples from Bennu, which will then be returned to Earth so NASA can learn more about space rocks and the solar system.
However, some conspiracy theorists believe NASA has already made the greatest discovery of mankind, as UFO hunters believe they have spotted evidence of aliens on the asteroid.
Alien hunters believe NASA spotted a small UFO on the surface of Bennu, and that the space agency is trying to cover up the evidence.
Prominent alien researcher Scott C Waring made the bizarre claim on his blog UFO Sightings Daily, stating that NASA are monitoring aliens and aliens are monitoring NASA.
He said: “This small metallic triangle object sitting on a rock was found on asteroid Bennu today.
“The photo was taken back in April 11, 2019 when the OSIRIS-REx probe made a flyby of of the Osprey site on Bennu.
“In the description below the photo NASA calls the missions detailed survey: Baseball Diamond phase.
“Why? Because there is a bright diamond object siting not he surface that is two meters across.
“This is 100 percent proof NASA saw the triangle craft too. Subconsciously the writer accidentally gave away the true mission.
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“The field of view is 165 ft (50.3 m). For scale, the light-coloured rock that looks like a spear tip in the crater is 17 ft (5.2 m) long, which is about the same length as a box truck.”
Mr Waring’s claim could be attributed to a psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia.
Pareidolia is where the brain looks for familiar patterns where there is not actually any there.
NASA said: “Pareidolia is the psychological phenomenon where people see recognisable shapes in clouds, rock formations, or otherwise unrelated objects or data.
“There are many examples of this phenomenon on Earth and in space.”
