...erm, don't they sort of have PICTURES of it?

Oh wait, no, those are pictures of a potato, spray-painted grey. It looks strange because it's been mutated either my secret nuclear tests or because of weird extraterrestrial death-ray technology. And you can tell it's fake 'cause all the pictures are on a black background, so it's just a black backdrop cloth, because you can't see any stars.

...I think I might be getting cynical. I need to go lie down.

Before I go, just notice that all the dates cited are BEFORE probes went to Mars. One is even before manned spaceflight.

And the REALLY ironic thing is I rather like that brand of mid-fifties pulp sci-fi...