Last week, NASA’s Curiosity rover captured a stunning image of a phenomenon on the surface of Mars: a rectangular entrance etched into the rock that appears to lead into a tumb.
The blurry photograph clearly reveals a rectangular breach in the rockface has sparked conspiracy theories that point to it as proof of extraterrestrial life on Mars.
In the past, people have also claimed to have spotted a squirrel and a spoon on Mars, among other out-of-place objects.
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The image was acquired on May 7 on board the Curiosity rover as it climbed Mount Sharp. Conspiracy theorists may be ecstatic with the black-and-white photograph, but it very certainly does not depict the entrance to an underground extraterrestrial civilization.
Scientists say It’s just the gap between two fractures at the Mars Science Laboratory. “We’ve been through a region composed of old sand dunes,” Ashwin Vasavadaת Science Mission Directorate told Gizmodo, “Over time, these sand dunes coalesced to form the sandstone outcrops Curiosity is traveling past.”
Vasavada explained that the crack is just about a foot tall and that these sand dunes were buried and unearthed when the sand on Mars’ surface changed over time. During this process, the sandstone was changing pressures, which caused it to bend and fracture in various locations. “Most of the fractures we observe in this region are vertical,” he noted. This specific crack in the shape of a doorway most likely occurred in one of two ways.
“I believe what we have here is either two vertical fractures in which the central piece has been removed or a single vertical fracture in which the blocks have separated somewhat,” Vasavada said.
Since its landing in August 2012 in Gale Crater, the Curiosity rover has been exploring Mars. Since then, the rover has traveled 27,84 kilometers (17.3 miles) in 3,472 Martian days (‘sols’). When not gathering rock and soil samples, Curiosity uses its panoramic Mastcam (mast + camera) to take photographs.
This image from Curiosity exemplifies our inclination to recognize familiar shapes in strange environments.
