Space - "Now we know why the apostle Thomas is pointing skywards in Leonardo Da Vinci's painting of The Last Supper," a NASA spokesman said today as news broke of the Martian find.
"Art historians have misinterpreted the gesture as St Thomas 'giving the bird' to Judas Iscariot.
"However you if you look closely at the red dot in the sky behind Jesus' head you'll easily see Leonardo's clue about the distant red planet."
The comments come in response to imagery sent from Mars by the Curiosity Rover of what at first glance looks like an ancient alien artefuct embedded in the landscape.
Careful filtering of grainy pixelation has revealed a space ship inscribed with what in Talmudic Aramaic reads as Lamb Of God Airways on the side of fuselage remains.
The craft's existence is hinted at in various chapters of the Dead Sea Scrolls describing the launch of a 'holy fire chariot' from near Lake Galilee around the time of St John the Baptist's beheading.
For centuries the iconic Judean water feature served as a launchpad for various Old Testament vanishing acts - including the Prophet Elijah who reportedly disappeared into the sky in a huge whirlwind.
NASA may now recreate a computer-simulated trajectory to test connections about Biblical Israel and Mars.
"It's what His Mother would have wanted," a Jet Convulsion Laboratory programmer commented.
