It shouldn’t surprise us that the human tendency to trash our surroundings follows us – and sometimes even seems to precede our arrival – where ever we go.

Thus this news item from NASA: Human Trash Discovered on Mars

No human being has yet set foot on Mars, but something has preceded us. 

NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover announced on its Twitter account Wednesday that it had encountered a piece of human-generated litter on the Red Planet.

“My team has spotted something unexpected: It’s a piece of a thermal blanket that they think may have come from my descent stage, the rocket-powered jet pack that set me down on landing day back in 2021,” the rover tweeted.

The only word we would question in this account is “unexpected.”