(NLDO) - Things like mine entrances, flying saucers, a spoon, a book, an ancient city... have been captured by Mars exploration vehicles.
Many times, the two American and European space agencies - NASA and ESA - have startled people with the pictures their probes took on Mars, a place believed to have once had life.
1. "Magic" spoon
NASA's Curiosity robotic rover has captured a bizarre image of what appears to be a flying spoon, with a clear shadow cast on the ground.
A strange rock formation that looks like a flying spoon on Mars - Photo: NASA
It's actually an optical illusion and the spoon is actually a piece of rock that has been shaped by nature in a weird way. It doesn't fly. If you look closely, you'll see that the "handle" of the spoon is actually attached to the larger rock.
2. Bathroom tile floor
That's the image NASA compared to the interesting geological structures Curiosity captured while climbing the slopes of Mount Sharp in 2021.
The image shows many nested polygons, most with five or six sides, and dates from 3.8 billion to 3.6 billion years ago.
Mud cracks look like bathroom tile floors - Photo: NASA
They are actually mud cracks that have dried and rewetted many times over the years, possibly dating back to a time when the Gale Crater area was full of water, and the water level rose and fell many times.
3. Inca city full of giant spiders
An ESA orbiter has captured a strange structure that looks like the ruins of an ancient city they call the "Inca City". In a photo taken straight from above, the city's interior appears to be crawling with giant black spiders.
"Inca city" at the South Pole of Mars - Photo: ESA
What created the sprawling “Inca City” in an arc shape remains a mystery, although the ESA speculates that it was the result of an ancient asteroid impact.
The Inca city is located at the south pole of Mars, where buried carbon dioxide ice sublimates as the weather warms seasonally. The newly released gas penetrates the surface ice, carrying black dust that scatters across the ground, creating patterns that resemble giant spiders.
Inside the Inca City is a pattern that ESA calls "Mars spiders" - Photo: ESA
4. The Book of Petrification
It's the famous Curiosity rover again: In another bizarre photo sent back to Earth by the robot, a strange object that looks like a half-turned book appears in the Gediz Vallis area.
According to NASA, this is another joke of nature. The book is just a small rock, only 2.5 cm wide.
The stone book captured by Curiosity - Photo: NASA
5. Mine entrance
The 2022 photo has sparked many conspiracy theories about intelligent life on the red planet, because it shows what looks exactly like a mine entrance on Earth.
But NASA says it's just an eroded rock formation, combined with the perfect angle.
"Mine entrance" on Mars - Photo: NASA
6. "Ghost" in the desert
In a photo sent back to Earth by the Perseverance rover — a newer version of Curiosity — something that looks like a white silhouette of someone or a white tower appears in the distance.
"Giant Ghost" - Photo: NASA
In fact, it was a giant dust storm, five times taller than the Empire State Building in the US.
Formed when rising masses of warm air meet falling columns of cool air, dust devils are extremely common on the red planet, perhaps as many as 145 million a day, a 2018 study estimated.
7. Mysterious cannonball hole?
This hole, several meters in diameter, was photographed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in 2022 on the flanks of a giant volcano called Arsia Mons.
Mysterious crater on Mars looks like it was created by a cannonball - Photo: NASA
The hole lies alongside a lava flow and appears to connect to a cave system deep below the volcano. While the depth of the hole is unknown, it could be an attractive shelter for future astronauts.
8. "Flying saucer" crash
The "alien spacecraft wreckage" seen by NASA's Ingenuity robotic helicopter is actually part of the part that will help Perseverance land in 2021.
"Flying saucer" on the red planet - Photo: NASA
9. The mysterious "bomb fragment"
Nestled among the dusty red rocks of Gale Crater, a gray object resembling shrapnel or a fragment of something metallic that had been blown up was caught by Curiosity.
Mysterious debris - Photo: NASA
Scientists believe it is the remains of a meteorite that crashed onto the surface of Mars many years ago.
Called Ames Knob and measuring about 10 x 14 cm, the meteorite could help reveal environmental conditions on Mars at the time it fell, including confirming whether there was water in the area at the time.
10. Rectangular foreign object
Some amateur observers have spotted a strange rectangular object in MRO's publicly available data, reminiscent of the alien monolith in the opening scene of "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Strange rectangular object - Photo: MRO
Still, NASA's MRO operations team believes it's nothing more than a large, perfectly rectangular rock.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/10-strange-photos-make-the-flower-intense-like-a-person-in-196250126085546558.htm
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