Alien hunters stumble upon enigmatic ‘Coffin’ on the red planet

From fossilised iguanas to Obama’s head, conspiracy theorists appear to have found all manner of things on Mars.

And now an alien coffin can be added to the list, after one Maryland-based UFO hunter spotted what he believes to be a ‘decorative’ box on the red planet.

The so-called ‘coffin’ was found by Will Farrar from WhatsUpintheSky37 as he trawled through a library of pictures sent back by the Mars rover Curiosity. The image pictured inset has been edited

‘This little box sure does look like a modern coffin concrete liner,’ he wrote on his YouTube channel.

‘As well as the stonework on the back part of the hill that looks like stairs or some left over stonework from some old civilisations constructions.’

Alien researcher Scott Waring of the UFO Sightings Daily said he believes the coffin was made from a stone-like substance.

‘What would it take to get Nasa to turn the rover around and examine the contents of this box?,’ he said.

‘It looks to be about 3.2 ft (one metre) across and 1.5ft (0.4 metres) wide and high.

‘Lots of alien species are short, including a species of grays.’

UFO researchers use the term ‘grays’ to describe alien visitor with an oval shaped head and large eyes – similar to the depiction shown in the film ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’.

But while its strong lines have captured the imagination of UFO bloggers, scientists believe sightings such as this are down to a psychological phenomenon called Pareidolia.

This describes the brain’s response to seeing faces and other significant objects in random places.

It has evolved so that human eyes can spot faces within their environment, and to help them recognise friends in a crowd.

Scientists claim we also tend to use this ability to ‘enrich our imagination’ and recognise meaningful shapes, even when they’re not there.

However, Mr Farrar isn’t convinced. ‘We’re not being told a whole bunch of stuff, so I don’t know what the truth is here,’ he said.

‘What would it take to get Nasa to turn the rover around and examine the contents of this box?,’ said Mr Waring. But while it has captured the imagination of UFO bloggers, scientists believe sightings such as this are down to a phenomenon called pareidolia – a psychological response to seeing items in random places

Jackie said she was working as part of a ‘downstairs’ team downloading telemetry from a Viking Lander when she saw the humans via live feed.

‘I wonder if you could solve a 27-year-old mystery for me,’ she asked the presenter. ‘That old Viking rover was running around.

‘Then I saw two men in space suits – not the bulky suits we normally used, but they looked protective. They came over the horizon walking to the Viking Explorer.’

Earlier this year, Dr John Brandenburg, a plasma physicist at Orbital Technologies, said he believes an ancient civilisation on Mars was wiped out by a nuclear attack from another alien race.

Dr Brandenburg claimed ancient Martians known as Cydonians and Utopians were mᴀssacred in the attack – and evidence of the genocide can still be seen today.

He claimed his theory could explain the Fermi Paradox – namely why, if the universe is abundant with life, we haven’t heard anything from anyone else yet.

Mr Waring suggests the coffin may hold a species of grays. UFO researchers use the term ‘grays’ to describe alien visitor with an oval shaped head and large eyes – similar to the depiction shown in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (pictured)

‘In reality UFO enthusiasts just spend far too much time searching Nasa images for the slightest glimpse of anything weird and finding proof that fits their own ideas,’ Nigel Watson, author of the UFO Investigations Manual told MailOnline.

‘In addition to the discovery of this coffin, way back in March 2014 ‘Truthseeker’ posted on Youtube a picture taken by the Curiosity rover that seemed to show a cross, which he thought was connected to a religious ceremonial religious structure.

‘He went on to speculate that it marked the position of a tombstone and claimed to have seen other images of the cross on the Martian surface. Christian worshipping aliens on Mars?

‘The possibilities are intriguing but there isn’t much firm evidence except that it does underline the adage that “seeing is believing”.’

The find follows a similarly bizarre claim made in November, when a lady claiming to be a former Nasa employee said she had seen humans on Mars.

The woman, named ‘Jackie’, called into American radio station, Coast to Coast AM, with a ‘confession’ that she had witnessed suited men running on the red planet in 1979.