Long-lost Beagle 2 Mars probe may have been spotted after 11 years

The Beagle 2 Mars probe that went missing 11 years may have been found, it has been reported.

The UK Space Agency stated that they would provide an "update" about what happened to the doomed craft which tried to land on the red planet on Christmas Day 2003, the Daily Express reported.

However, experts with access to pictures from space claimed that they have seen images which suggested the Beagle 2 probe has been spotted.

A senior space scientist said NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) showed an object roughly the right shape and in the correct place to be the craft.

The Beagle 2 probe was created by a group of British academics and the project was lead by the late Professor Colin Pillinger. It was initially transported with the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter and was designed to search for signs of past or present life.

It was successfully released from the orbiter on December 19 2003 but the expected signal confirming touch down on Christmas Day was never received.

The probe was presumed lost and a subsequent report on the failure was unable to come to a definite conclusion about the craft's fate. It was doubled that Beagle 2 "missed" landing on Mars or burned up in the planet's atmosphere.