Spiders, a smiling smiley, a door… There are many things that Mars rovers and other orbiters have been able to observe on Mars. On September 27, 2024, PerseveranceNASA’s rover captured what appears to be a severed head lying on the ground of the Red Planet. Yet another case of interplanetary pareidolia.
A little reminder about pareidolia
You’ve probably already looked into the clouds and noticed that one of them was shaped like a horse or a boat or even a human. Or maybe you’ve already caught yourself jumping when you saw that piece of rope at your feet because you imagined having to escape from a snake.
This is what pareidolia is. In detail, it is a psychological phenomenon by which human beings recognize shapes that are familiar to them in a vague visual stimulus. It can be visual or auditory.
This principle, which applies on Earth, can also be applied in the Universe in general. This is why we believe we recognize particular shapes when looking at the stars or certain galaxies for example, with the naked eye or through a telescope. Or in this specific case through a photograph captured by the rover Perseverance on Mars.
A “disgruntled face” on Mars
Voted as NASA Photo of the Week 189, the image captured by Perseverance caught the public’s attention for a very particular reason.
Indeed, taking a quick look at the photo, we only see an expanse of sand on which rocks have probably been placed for a very long time. But it is by paying a little more attention to the details that this “disgruntled face” appears to us. For those who haven’t seen it, it’s on the left side of the image.
photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Although it is just a simple rock and nothing more, its mouth, nostrils and eyes can be easily distinguished. A bit like it was a severed head. The keenest observers will also have noticed the point formed above its “skull”. In any case and looking at the image, this rock with its ambiguous shape did not seem inclined to accept photographs.
Shapes studied and reproduced in the laboratory
Remember in the spring of 2024 when swarms of spiders were thought to be present on the surface of Mars? Obviously, it was not a question of extraterrestrial arachnids, but of a multitude of geological phenomena which find their cause in the Martian seasons and the sunshine on the surface of the planet.
Well on September 11, 2024, NASA announced in a press release that it had reproduced these famous spiders, which had panicked the web, in the laboratory using DUSTIE or Dirty Under-vacuum Simulation Testbed for Icy Environments (Vacuum simulation test bench for icy environments).
However, we doubt that NASA will attempt to reproduce this “disgruntled face” found on Mars unless this rock, which will perhaps be studied one day, is of real interest for learning more about the Martian past or for finding evidence of a possible establishment of life on the surface of the planet.
Source : NASA / IFLScience
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