Unsolved mystery.- A suspicious shadow crossing over Sojourner, the Mars rover vehicle, sent Pathfinder scientists scrambling to find an explanation. Under pressure from NSA representatives from Area 51 (NSAa51), NASA publicly claimed that Sojourner was suffering from another software glitch that caused it to become trapped on one of the rocks.

In the meantime the focused Pathfinder's cameras on anything that might shed light as to the origin of the shadow. For two days they turned up nothing, until photo analysts found suspicious depressions in an area that previously seemed clean.

NASA photographs find Martian footprints

The photographs, when subjected to computer analysis, surprised everyone at NASA. They revealed the footprints of a three-toed creature, which mission director Golembek named "ET" after the popular movie character who also had three toes.

On the left is the official photograph of the Martian surface released to the public. On the right is the startling photograph of footprints on Mars.

"NASA scientists debated the photographic evidence for more than a day before deciding the evidence was unavoidable. Something left its footprints on the Martian surface," said my own source at NASA, who insists on remaining anonymous.

Computer enhancement of the object labeled ETL-02 shows clear indications that it was a footprint left by a creature with three-digits, or "toes." NASA scientists believe this is the most startling evidence of extraterrestrial life ever produced.

Even though the pictures became available on July 14, they were not released until this weekend, when "they would have passed through enough hands to keep suspicion from landing on me," he added.