NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UARIZONA
Pareidolia manifests itself very often in our red neighbor. Curiosity sharpens the imagination.
Our neighbor Marte It has given us several surprises over the years, which make us increasingly enthusiastic about the idea that there can be intelligent life outside in the vast universe.
One of the most iconic Martian episodes dates back to 1976, when NASA’s Viking 1 probe captured a curious image of the Cydonia region: a structure that looked like a carved human face on the Martian surface.
Quickly emerged theories about alien civilizations and ritual architecture on the red planet. But of course, high resolution images captured decades later revealed that it was only a flat hill where light and shadows created the illusion of a human face.
The human tendency to see family forms where they do not exist is actually a whole psychological phenomenon known as, curiously if often in spatial discoveries.
Mars is a great “home” of the psychological phenomenon. In 2020, for example, an influencer suggested that a curiosity probe photograph showed a creature similar to A gorilla with a babywhen in fact the very shared figure on social networks was composed of unusual format stones that were misunderstood.
Another case that stirred the conspiracy theorists’ circles came in 2022, when the same curiosity captured an image that seemed to reveal one. Although geological formation actually remembered an artificial entry, scientists quickly pointed out that the phenomenon was due to the combination of shadows, perspective and natural erosion – and not the existence of alien temples.
Although many of the intriguing elements of Mars are illusions, some discoveries are really mysterious. A recent example is the call, found in 2024 in the interior of the Jezero crater by the probe perseverance. With a standard of stripes that earned her the name, the rock – officially appearance by Freya Castle – presents a texture never before seen on Mars.
Scientists are still unsure their chemical composition, but they suspect that standards may originate in igneous or metamorphic processes.
And there are still the famous “” – or Spiders from Mars, for David Bowie fans.
Visions for the first time in 1972 by Mariner 9 probe in the Angustus dlyerinthus region, next to the Martian South Pole, these web -shaped patterns, despite the name, are not living creatures. According to the model proposed by Hugh Kieffer, they form when the sun warms layers of cold carbon dioxide, releasing gas that cracks the ice to the surface and creates the spiders similar designs.
