Gimme, gimme, gimme a SPIDER after midnight! An ABBA arachnid, life on Mars, and a killer cat! These are the CRAZIEST stories of the past week...

Life on Mars? A wild cat on cocaine? And a spider named after ABBA? These are just some of the headlines that have been making a noise this week. Read on to discover the WEIRDEST news of the last seven days...

A small group of scientists believe that life has already been found on Mars. The experts think that they have spotted fossilised sponges, fungi, shrimp, crabs, sea spiders, scorpions and even a translucent millipede on the surface of the Red Planet. Dr. Rudolph Schild, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said on behalf of the academics: "We have photos of fungi growing out of the ground, increasing in size, increasing in number, as based on sequential images. "Imagine, if you saw some of these specimens in your backyard, or growing in your bathtub, wouldn't you spend a lot of time investigating, calling in experts, taking photos from every angle, trying to nudge it and see what happens? "Definitive proof would tell us we are not alone. We could assume that life has evolved on innumerable Earth-like planets."

Yoga helps men last longer in the bedroom. A new scientific review has concluded that doing the downward dog can tackle PE and enables men to triple their staying power when they are making love. The Anglia Ruskin University review analysed men who suffer from PE and concluded that physical activity is a key strategy to help men improve performance between the sheets. Lee Smith, professor of public health at Anglia Ruskin University, said: "Strategies for men to help them last longer in the bedroom could help improve their relationship with their partner and their self-esteem. "This evidence is based on studies involving a small number of men, and we need more research in this area, but approaches like physical activity could help all men."

A wild cat that was addicted to cocaine has started a new life at a zoo in Ohio. The African serval, that has been named Amiry, was captured by banimal welfare services in late January after being spotted in a tree in Oakley, Ohio, Cincinnati. The cat was taken to a vet and was treated for a broken leg, an injury that occurred when the creature was captured, and was also found to have traces of cocaine in its system by further medical tests. Amiry has now started a new life at Cincinnati Zoo, receiving the best possible care. Ray Anderson - a spokesperson with Cincinnati Animal Care (CAC) – said: “We’re extremely proud of the work done in this case by the dog wardens and medical staff and are immensely appreciative to the Cincinnati zoo for getting Amiry the care he needs.”

NASA is launching a new spacesuit that could allow humans to live on the Moon "long-term". The suits are set to be worn by astronauts on the Artemis III mission which will see the crew spend a week on the lunar surface in 2025. A spokesman for the US space agency said: "With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of colour on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. "New spacesuits that allow humans to explore the lunar surface advance our capability for human exploration in space."

Snorers are taking desperate measures to stop the noisy habit. A survey has found that more than half of those who snore have resorted to tactics such as putting tennis balls in their pyjamas and taping their mouths closed in a bid to prevent themselves from making sounds while sleeping. The survey, commissioned by tech firm Mute, found that 56 per cent of Brits either snore or have a partner who does and many have turned to weird remedies. Some sufferers fix a tennis ball to the back of their pyjamas to train them to sleep on their side as medics say people are more likely to snore while slumbering on their back.

UFO experts have admitted that alien 'motherships' could be sending probes to Earth. The Pentagon's UFO chief Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick suggests in a new scientific paper that an alien spacecraft could have been sent across the galaxy a long time ago. Kirkpatrick and Harvard professor Avi Loeb argued that the craft could have been able to launch probes the size of "dandelion seeds" to visit planets as it passes them and Earth could have been affected. The pair wrote: "An artificial interstellar object could potentially be a parent craft that releases many small probes during its close passage to Earth, an operational construct not too dissimilar from NASA missions."

People are frightened of clowns as it is impossible to tell what they are thinking. Experts say that many suffer from coulrophobia - a fear of the face-painted entertainers - as clowns do not look human and their "exaggerated facial features convey a direct sense of threat". Researchers at the University of South Wales carried out a study to discover the roots of the fear and found that negative portrayals, such as Stephen King's Pennywise, was also a key factor. The scientists wrote: "For many people, a fear of clowns stems from not being able to see their facial expressions due to make-up. "We cannot see their 'true' faces and therefore cannot understand their emotional intent."

Socialising regularly helps people live longer. Experts have found that older people who socialise on a daily, weekly or monthly basis had a significantly better chance of a long life than those who socialised the least or not at all. A team from Sichuan University West China Hospital studied data over a five-year period from more than 28,000 people and found that death rates were far higher among elderly individuals who never socialised. The authors said: "This study found that frequent participation in social activity was associated with prolonged overall survival time. "From baseline (start of study) to five years of follow-up, the more frequent the social activity, the more prolonged the survival time. "However, after five years of follow-up, there was a threshold effect regarding the association between social activity frequency and overall survival time, and only participating in social activity almost every day could significantly extend the overall survival time."

A delivery man thought he’d been attacked by a resident with a knife when trying to hand out a package – but it was a territorial cat. The unnamed man had attempted to post something through a letterbox at a house in Bodmin, South West England, when he received the injuries and contacted police. Armed response units from Devon and Cornwall Police were deployed to the address only to find an angry feline was responsible for the man’s injuries. In a humorous post on their Facebook page, Bodmin Police shared: “This afternoon we received an emergency call that a gent who was delivering items had pushed a letter through a door when his fingers had been cut with a knife or some glass, causing a nasty laceration. "Bodmin units were dispatched immediately to the location, and specialist armed response units were on standby to assist. On arrival the first officers quickly identified the assailant was none other than the resident guard cat being a little territorial! "Luckily the gent is ‘feline’ fine and been given ’paws’ for thought about the dangers of putting fingers through letter boxes. A purrfect end to this job…”

A new type of spider has been named after ABBA. Music-loving scientists have called the new genus of arachnid Abba transversa in homage to the 'Dancing Queen' band. Dr. Pedro Castanheira and Dr. Volker Framenau said: "The band's songs and subsequent musicals 'Mamma Mia!' and 'Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again' provided hours of entertainment for us." The spider is found in the coastal areas of New South Wales and Queensland in Australia. The tiny critter differentiates from other species within the spider family by the presence of two dark spots in the middle of its abdomen and by the thick hair on the legs of the males and boffins believe that the discovery could be significant.