The eerie purple orb freaking out social media is actually Spudnik-1, a homegrown ISS potato pointing to NASA's plans for food on Moon and Mars trips.

The crew of the Artemis II landed back on Earth on Friday night - but human beings weren't the only ones greeting them aboard the USS John P Murtha

The internet went into a frenzy on Friday when a NASA astronaut shared a weird alien-looking photo on social media. The photo showed an object that was floating in the air and appeared to be purple, egg-shaped with tentacles spouting out of it.

NASA's historic Artemis II mission is hurtling towards a high-stakes splashdown off the California coast tonight, bringing a record-setting Lunar odyssey to a fiery conclusion. The Orion capsule, carrying astronauts Reid Wiseman,

The “alien” is actually a potato. Specifically, it is a purple tuber nicknamed Spudnik-1, grown and photographed by Pettit. While the photo looks like a sci-fi horror prop, it actually represents the front line of human survival: a proof-of-concept for a journey to Mars.

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