Recent images transmitted by the Curiosity rover on Mars have revealed what appears to be a door perfectly carved that leads to a underground martian tomb. Since its publication, conspiracy theorists have reveled in the image, giving free rein to their imaginations. However, experts are fairly certain that it is a natural feature of the Martian landscape. But if it’s not a subterranean alien society, what explains the strange Martian formation?
The curiositywho has been studying the surface features of Mars for more than 10 years, took the image while ascending Mount Sharp with its Mastcam camera on May 7, and it was released by NASA late last week.
Several colorized images have been made from the black-and-white original, including a panorama made by stitching together several of Curiosity’s photographs, as seen on Gigapan.com, the website of a panoramic photography company.
What do the experts say? Sandstone outcrops on Mars
Ashwin Vasavada, project scientist at the Mars Science Laboratory, in an interview with Gizmodo, assured that the region was formed by ancient sand dunes that created outcroppings of sandstone over time. Most likely the “door” is a small fracturehe claimed.
“I think what we have here is either two vertical fractures, where the center piece has been removed, or one vertical fracture, and the blocks have separated a little bit,” Vasavada told the outlet.
“It’s a very curious image,” British geologist Neil Hodgson, who has studied the geology of Mars, told Live Science. “But in summary: it seems to me that it is a natural erosion,” he added.
Mars earthquakes
Many others claim that the “alien door“It would have been the result of some kind of stress in the rock breaking part of it, perhaps aided by one or two Martian earthquakes, although not all the experts consulted agree.
In fact, the largest tremor on the Red Planet to date occurred on May 4 of this year, and scientists are still working to determine exactly where it occurred and what caused it.
On the other hand, while the gate-shaped rock formation may appear life-size in our imaginations, it is possible that the cavity you see is only a few centimeters high in real life; according to Vasavada, the fracture would only be about 30 centimeters high.
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conspiracy theories
Despite the explanations of the experts, conspiracies do not stop on the Internet. Some have even seen one skull painted on the inside of the “door” and an “enhanced” image purports to show a little man inside.
“Moon Cube”
This new wave of theories is reminiscent of similar cases in the past, such as the old “moon cube” or “alien hut” detected by China’s Yutu 2 rover, which, upon further investigation, turned out to be just another stone.
So while many would love a finding of such magnitude, the mysterious door, like the other “finds”, does not have an extraordinary explanation. However, while Curiosity continues to give us wonderful snapshots of the red planet, with some serious research work going on, it doesn’t hurt to have some fun using our imaginations in the meantime.
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Source: DW