In 2021, an international team of scientists claimed in a new paper that they suspected there might be "mushrooms" growing on Mars.

If true, this would be a major discovery for the history books, meaning that humans have finally discovered life on Mars.

The team of scientists collected and analyzed various images taken by NASA's rover and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment), and saw the presence of "chalky-white, spherical," mushroom-like objects. The photos had been analyzed by scientists before, and initially, the researchers thought that they were minerals called hematite, but later studies refuted this claim, as they resembled lichens and mushrooms.

In addition to the similarity in appearance, the team suspected that the objects were "mushrooms" for two other reasons. One is that the rate of "growth" of these objects is very similar to that of mushrooms on Earth, with nine spheres increasing in size and twelve others emerging from beneath the soil over three days. Secondly, these spherical objects also have stems or outer membranes that are partially detached and surrounded by a white mass of material, similar to fungi on Earth.

Many fungi on Earth, including mushrooms, can survive in extreme environments; is it possible that these spherical objects on Mars are mushrooms? Many scientists in the scientific community are skeptical of the "Martian mushroom" claim and believe that more evidence is needed to prove it. They believe that the objects shown in the photographs may be non-living and may be beyond our ability to decipher at this time. We can't unravel science by just imagining it, which is why we're always trying to work our way onto Mars to explore it.

The scientific instruments on board the Mars rovers are the biggest help for mankind to understand Mars at the moment. The U.S. Mars rover is equipped with a series of advanced scientific instruments, and if it can find biochemical evidence of "Martian mushrooms", then the claim of "Martian mushrooms" will be truly valid.

This isn't the first time humans have thought they've found evidence of the existence of life on Mars, and there's no shortage of such plausible discoveries. It should be emphasized that these are only morphological similarities, which do not prove that they are "mushrooms", let alone evidence of life on Mars. The real answer is still waiting for us to explore.