8/16/2023 0 Comments Mars imagesNASA scientists confirmed it was a 'diagenetic crystal cluster', smaller than a penny, which may have been formed by minerals precipitating from water. In February 2022, the rover captured an image of what appeared to be a coral-like 'flower' in the Gale Crater, but was actually a microscopic mineral formation. Last June, it discovered some strange, twisting structures poking out of the surface of Mars, which are now thought to be naturally-occurring 'hoodoos'.Įxperts said the columns were probably created from cement-like substances that once filled ancient cracks of Martian bedrock.īut, over time, the softer rock eroded away, leaving only the twisting towers of compact material protruding from the sand in the crater. This is not the first strange formation that has been photographed by the Curiosity rover that has left scientists scratching their heads. NASA's Curiosity rover (pictured) has been roaming the Gale Crater since August 2012 as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission While wrote: 'I'm happy to believe that's the back of a fossilised Martian dragon, curled up in its final resting place.' Twitter said: 'On earth that would be a fossil plant say a fir tree branch or fish backbone, difficult for it to be a natural rock formation.' Other online guesses include 'it looks like a very easy to crumble fish vertebra', 'fish fossils', 'mackerel fillet', and 'skeleton of some prehistoric creature'. Ms Cabrol also said it was likely the 'remains of ripples after lots of erosion'. Twitter user Martin Weil said: 'If it blows over loose sand for a sufficiently large number of eons, every geometric form known to us may eventually be created.' Some suggest Martian winds may have eroded the rocks over a large expanse of time. 'I cannot wait to have a microscopic image of this one.'Īnother user commented: 'Really strange, never seen something like this and I have been looking into Mars images since Sojourner mission back in 1997.' Cabrol shared a photo of it on Twitter, commenting that 'in 20 years of studying Mars, that's the most bizarre rock I have ever seen. It is also constantly beaming back images of the strange things it comes across, like this spiky rock formation.Īstrobiologist Nathalie A. The rover's mission goals include an investigation of the Martian climate and geology, and to prepare for human exploration. “Sol 3466: Mast Camera (Mastcam).” NASA Mars Exploration. “NEW: A Formation on Mars Which Appears to Be a Portal and a Wall Nearby That Looks Artifical. “Does This Photo Show a Hole Drilled on Mars?” Snopes.Com. “The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Mastcam Instruments: Preflight and in-Flight Calibration, Validation, and Data Archiving.” Earth and Space Science, vol. No, NASA Does Not Plan To Send ‘Nude Pics’ into Spaceīell III, James F., et al.Was a Mars Rover’s Final Message to NASA ‘My Battery Is Low and It’s Getting Dark?’.Does This Photo Show a Hole Drilled on Mars?.Want more fact checks about weird and wacky Mars rumors? Check out these: As such, we rated this claim as “Miscaptioned.” So, while the Reddit post displayed an authentic photo captured by NASA's Mars Curiosity rover, the photo did not show either a portal or an artificial wall. While we can't say for certain whether Martians indeed used itty-bitty, little doors, NASA was sure that the “door” in this instance was just a small rock crevice. It’s very small and looks like … a crevice in the rock,” the spokesperson wrote. “See it? You can zoom in with the +/- on the right side of the screen. The tiny “door” (crevice) can be seen roughly dead center, up a little, and a bit to the left. Neville Thompson, who is not affiliated with NASA, created the piece, which showed contents of the in-question image within the broader marscape. NASA media relations team also referred us to a publicly available, digital mosaic of photos that the rover also captured. The "door" image was captured on May 7, 2022, which is also Sol 3466 - the 3,466th solar day on Mars, or a Mars-day. The photograph was taken by the Mast Camera ( Mastcam) outfitted aboard Curiosity, a system that uses fixed-focal length, multispectral imagers to capture “true color” images of the red planet and beyond. "They said there are linear fractures throughout this outcrop, and this is a location where several linear fractures happen to intersect." “The team’s scientists underlined just how small is: roughly 30 centimeters wide and 45 centimeters across (11 by 17 inches)," a JPL spokesperson said via email. That was because while something depicted in the grainy, black-and-white version of the photograph taken by a camera aboard the rover could be interpreted to resemble the shape of a door, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) told Snopes that it actually was a “very, very, very zoomed in shot of a tiny crevice in a rock.”
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