A storm of tiny dust particles has engulfed much of Mars over the last two weeks and prompted NASA's Opportunity rover to suspend science operations. But across the planet, NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been studying Martian soil at Gale Crater, is expected to remain largely unaffected by the dust. The Martian dust storm has grown in size and is now officially a 'planet-encircling' (or 'global') dust event.

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover has recently released a new batch of photos taken from its current location in the Martian Gale Crater. The images were posted online by the in Pasadena, California, which designed and built the Mars rover and is now managing the robot's mission on the Red Planet.
The snapshots were taken by the rover's Front Hazcam on Sol 2080, or June 13, and reveal a bizarre blurred shape that appears to be moving on Mars, reports the .
The British news outlet cites the claims made by conspiracy theorists, who suggest that the mysterious object could be proof of life on Mars and that its perceived movement resembles that of an animal running across the red dirt on the planet's surface.
These allegations are being made particularly by the "Secureteam10" YouTube channel, which uploaded a video playing the Curiosity rover images side by side.

One of NASA's robot rovers on Mars has been silenced as a massive dust storm roars across the Martian surface. With its power source — the sun — obscured, the rover Opportunity, "has gone to sleep," said John Callas, project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.