More Photos of Mars, and We Found a Spoon

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There are tons of weird things on Mars. Spoons, noodles, doors, even faces. Are they all really

just rocks? Besides, it's not the only planet in our solar system full of mysterious things.

Let's check them out.

Recently we found a strange thing on Mars that looks like a smooth, spoon-like object.

It grabbed everyone's attention after NASA's Curiosity rover spotted it. The rock, with a handle

and rounded tip, looks like it's floating in the rover's photo. People on the internet are

puzzled about what it might be. Summer joking that it's a Martian's bowling pin or even a shoehorn

left by extraterrestrial creatures. But Andrew Good from NASA says it's not that exciting. Turns

out it's just a rock shaped by the wind over a long time. These kinds of rocks with odd shapes

are common on Mars. They're called ventifacts. Ventifact is a rock that can get scratched,

dented, or smoothed out by tiny particles carried by the wind. You'll usually find these kinds of

rocks in dry places where there's not much grass or trees to block the wind, and where there's

a lot of sand blowing around. Sometimes the wind can carve ventifacts into really cool shapes,

like the mushroom rocks you can see in the white desert national park in Egypt. These rocks look

like giant mushrooms because the wind wears away the bottom part faster than the top, making them

stand tall and slim. Ventifacts aren't the only cool Martian rocks. Check out this series of

surreal spikes protruding from the red surface. NASA's Curiosity rover stumbled upon them while

exploring the gale crater on Mars. They quickly caught everyone's attention. Twisting structures

resembling spikes look like some extraterrestrial doors. Even the SETI Institute, an organization

focused on searching for extraterrestrial life, tweeted about the image, referring to it as a

cool rock. But in reality, these are just who-dos. These tall and thin spires occur when hard

rocks sit atop softer rock layers. Martian spikes are likely cemented fillings of ancient fractures

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With softer material eroded away over time. Again, there are many hoodews on Earth too.

They're also called fairy chimneys or tent rocks. You can find them in places like Utah's

Bryce Canyon and the Colorado Plateau. NASA is excited about these weird structures because

they can help us learn more about the history of the Gale Crater.

There was also a rock that looked like a jelly donut. We call this rock Pinnacle Island.

It was spotted by NASA's cameras. However, just four days earlier, it was nowhere to be seen.

So how did it magically disappear? In a very anticlimactic way, it was kicked up by one of

opportunities wheels as it traversed the Martian terrain. But there's still some mysteries surrounding

that jelly donut. Analysis revealed that Pinnacle Island contains unusually high levels

of sulfur and manganese. Both of these things are water soluble. In other words, there might

have been some water action that created these elements in the rock. So this tiny thing suddenly

caused a lot of drama and an entire lawsuit against NASA. It claimed that the agency failed to

investigate a possible fungus growing on Mars. Mm, jelly donut fungus.

But not all our findings are natural. Another puzzling discovery was this thing, the Perseverance

rover spotted. It's something that looks like tangled spaghetti or a string. Just like the donut,

this mysterious object showed up in a rover camera image and then vanished from the sandy ground

in several days. It turns out that it could be debris from the rover's landing system.

Perseverance landed in the Jiserro crater in February 2021. It had a rough landing and

accidentally scattered debris around. Some of these debris pieces have been showing up in the

rover's images for a while now. The string-like object is likely a piece of shredded acronetic,

which is a type of fiber used in thermal blankets. These blankets help regulate equipment

temperatures during the super-hot process of landing on Mars. It probably underwent significant

unraveling and shredded due to strong forces during the landing.

Thermal blankets lost a bunch of stuff back then. For example, this shiny foil piece spotted in

June. The rover found it on a rock. What's remarkable is how far some of the debris has traveled.

The rover landed about 1.2 miles away from where it's currently explored.

It's probably because the crash threw the debris into the air and the Martian winds carried

over such a distance. Mars is known for its strong winds, which can move lightweight objects.

However, while it's fun to stumble upon them on images, there are concerns about the debris

and trash on Mars. We haven't even fixed this problem on Earth,

and we're already creating it on Mars. The debris we left on the red planet is already

accumulating in an area called hogwala flats. Plus, the debris can accidentally contaminate the

sample tubes used for collecting Martian rocks. So far, NASA isn't overly worried about this,

but they're keeping a close eye on it to prevent any issues with the rovers.

Now, how about not things but animals? Curiosity caused quite a stir when it captured something

that looked like a rat on Mars. Some started speculating that it could be evidence of indigenous

Martian life, or even that this road it was brought along by Curiosity. But the Mars rat,

once again, turned out to be just a weird rock. It looked interesting because of the natural

processes like wind erosion and a mechanical abrasion. We also found some worm-looking things.

Curiosity snapped a picture of a formation that looks like worms wriggling across the

Martian landscape. Despite its tiny size, this formation stands out with its unique shape and

rough texture. It's probably made of durable material resistant to Mars' harsh erosion.

And finally, our top mysterious finding is the face on Mars. Sedonia is a region on Mars that

has captured both scientific and popular interest. It's located in Mars' northern hemisphere.

It lies between heavily cratered regions to the south and relatively smooth plains to the north.

There's a theory that the northern plains may have once been ocean beds. Maybe Sedonia was once

a coastal zone. This place is full of interesting and beautiful features that tell us a lot about

the history of the red planet. But its most interesting feature was the Martian face.

This thing gained widespread attention when it was snapped by the Viking I orbiter in 1976.

Some believe that it was evidence of a long-lost Martian civilization. At first,

NASA dismissed it as a trick of life and shadow. But after some analysis, it turned out to be,

yep, another rock. We also saw a face of a bear. It was captured by the high-resolution imaging

experiment camera. In an image, we can see a circular fracture pattern that looks like a bear's head

with two craters forming the eyes and a V-shaped collapse structure like the nose.

The head, likely formed because something heavy settled on top of an old hole in the ground.

This hole was filled with either lava or mud. The nose-like feature is speculated to be a volcanic

or mud vent. But why do we keep seeing these strange things on Mars? Sometimes our brains can trick us

into seeing things like faces or objects and rocks and other things. But these are just illusions

called periodolia. Periodolia is a psychological phenomenon that makes us see familiar patterns

or shapes, especially faces, where none actually exists. It's because the brain encounters something

it doesn't recognize or understand right away. It tries to find things that look the most like

this one. So it sees random patterns, textures or sounds as something meaningful and recognizable.

That's why a chair and clothes on it seems like a super creepy human-like figure at night.

It also causes you to see faces or shapes and clouds. Or, here recognizable sounds and even words

in random noise. It's a fascinating proof of the power of our perception. But we also should

be careful with it. And not let our imagination run wild.

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