A photo taken by an astronaut on a NASA mission recently sparked excitement online, with some people initially believing it showed an alien life form. It turned out to be a simple picture of a potato!
NASA astronaut Don Pettit has spent almost 25 years traveling to space, and during that time, he’s taken incredible photos, including pictures of comets and the beautiful aurora borealis from October 2024.
A new photo from astronaut Pettit, taken from the International Space Station, features a strange, purple, egg-like object with what appear to be ‘tentacles’ extending from one side. He posted the image online, and it sparked some worried responses from viewers.
One Instagram user demanded its destruction and told the object to stay away from Earth. On Reddit, another commenter joked that it looked like an alien egg, saying they’d ‘seen this movie before’.
The photo can be seen on Pettit’s Instagram post below.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Don Pettit (@astro_pettit)
“Spudnik-1” grows in Pettit’s “space garden”
Okay, so the whole ‘alien’ thing? Turns out it was just a potato! They nicknamed it Spudnik-1, which is adorable. And those weird ‘tentacles’ everyone was seeing? They were just the potato sprouting! Apparently, without gravity, the sprouts grow out in every direction, as astronaut Ron Pettit explained on Reddit. It’s so cool how space affects even something as simple as a potato!
Pettit shared that growing potatoes was a hobby he pursued during his free time. He clarified that the grey area on the potato’s side was actually a piece of hook-and-loop fastener (Velcro) used to secure it within the homemade grow light setup he’d built.
I was reading about how amazing potatoes are – they give you a ton of food for how much the plant actually weighs, especially when you consider the roots! It even reminded me of that book ‘The Martian’ by Andy Weir, where they grow potatoes on Mars. It got me thinking, if we’re going to explore space, potatoes could be a really important food source, so I figured, why not start learning about growing them now?
Read More
- United Airlines can now kick passengers off flights and ban them for not using headphones
- Katanire’s Yae Miko Cosplay: Genshin Impact Masterpiece
- All Itzaland Animal Locations in Infinity Nikki
- How to Complete Bloom of Tranquility Challenge in Infinity Nikki
- How to Get to the Undercoast in Esoteric Ebb
- Gold Rate Forecast
- A Dark Scream Theory Rewrites the Only Movie to Break the 2-Killer Rule
- All Golden Ball Locations in Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties
- Fire Force Season 3 Part 2 Episode 24 Release Date, Time, Where to Watch
- ‘Send Help’ Sets Digital Streaming Release Date With Gory Deleted Scene From Horror Hit [Exclusive]
2026-03-29 23:48