High resolution Curiosity images from Mars. Signs of life in NASA images from Mars (12 photos)

Photos from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO or MRS) show features of Mars. For example, the first image above looks like a strange alien amoeba.

Below are other pictures of the planet, but let's look at them as a kind of Rorschach test. Perhaps some of the photos will seem like bacteria or amoebas under a microscope, or strange sea creatures on the ocean floor.

This is also one way to highlight the importance of the CTX context camera in studying the Red Planet. The HiRISE camera produces spectacular high-resolution images of the planet's surface, but its photos (as at the beginning of the article) are sometimes difficult to interpret. In this case, scientists use images from CTX; they have lower resolution, but a larger area with the surrounding landscape and geological formations is captured in the frame. As a result, the image of the bacterium turns into a crater with a peak in the center.

In fact, the close-up shows a formation in the Martian landscape that resembles a depression with drainage channels in the surrounding depressions.

The MPC context camera helps you put the scene into perspective.

NASA says the strange-looking rippled areas are similar to areas where they have previously tested. Although the strange formations are closely monitored, there is still an element of mystery. Similar depressions with concentric depressions exist in other places on Mars, and their origin is widely debated.

People love exciting space stories. That's why it's so interesting to speculate about the unusual objects seen in images of Mars. Our imagination turns rocks into faces and cosmic rays into alien messages.

Join us as we explore some of Mars' most famous mysteries and the scientific explanations behind them.

Classic: Face of Mars

This iconic image of the surface of Mars was taken by NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft, which landed on the planet in 1976. Everyone was excited about the face-shaped formation at the top middle of the picture. If you have a creative mind, then you can easily spot two eyes, a nose, a mouth and a strange hairstyle. As a result, some people thought that the captured face was a monument on Mars. Some even recognized him as a young Elvis Presley.

New look at the Face of Mars

The space agency wanted to find a scientific explanation for the appearance of the “monument” in the photo. In 2001, the situation was clarified by the Mars Global Surveyor research station, which received a fresh photograph of the face. The new photo had a higher resolution, and in it the studied area appeared more shapeless and with less sharp features. In short, it's just a pile of rocks and not any kind of alien.

In 2014, the Curiosity rover took a photo showing a very strange rock that looked a bit like a human femur. According to scientists, the non-standard shape was formed under the influence of wind or water erosion. If human remains were found on Mars, the whole world would already know about it.

Strange pattern

In March 2018, NASA published this image taken by MRS under the dramatic title "The Case of the Martian Boulder Piles." Don't explore the open space, but look at the dark sand dunes. And you will see a surprisingly orderly series of boulder piles.

NASA scientists believe the neat piles may have formed due to “frost heaving,” which consists of freezing and thawing cycles that gave the rocks their neat shapes. A similar process is observed on Earth.

Donald Trump, is that you?

News headlines in 2016 were full of statements about the appearance of current US President Donald Trump in a photo of Mars. In 2009, Opportunity captured a rock that, according to media reports, resembles the head of a businessman with his prominent hair.

The psychological phenomenon of pareidolia helped journalists spot the famous person in the rock, thanks to which in everyday life we ​​notice familiar figures and outlines of animals in the clouds.

Morse code?

In the image captured by MRS in February 2016, strange formations are visible. The dark, towering areas are dunes, reminiscent of the dots and dashes of Morse code.

Unfortunately, the code means some kind of gobbledygook. Planetary scientist Veronica Bray analyzed the dune image and told Gizmodo that the code reads "NEE NED ZB 6TNN DEIBEDH SIEFI EBEEE SSIEI ESEE SEEE!!"

Tadpole on Mars

Admittedly, this formation spotted by MRS looks a lot like a tadpole, yo-yo, or even a sperm. In fact, it is a round crater, and the tail was formed under the influence of water flow.

In February 2018, the space agency stated:

Based on the necessary information about the elevation of the area, we can conclude that the water is flowing outward.

Although the planet was filled with water in the past, not a single amphibious life form has been found on it at present.

Did you order fish?

A rock in the shape of a fish was found on Mars, although real fish are not found here. The unusual formation was captured by the camera of the Curiosity rover, and fans of UFOs and aliens were absolutely delighted with it. During filming, the illusion of the presence of fish was created by the shape of the rock and its lighting.

NASA considers the possibility of the presence of fossilized bones and animals on Mars unlikely. The agency explains its position by saying that there has never been enough oxygen in the atmosphere and other places on the planet to support the life of complex organisms.

The devil is in the details

A distinctive jet trail appears in this picturesque landscape of Mars captured in 2016 by Opportunity. In reality, this is a dust devil, the same ones are found on Earth. Rising dust devils are one of the main dangerous weather conditions on Mars that future human visitors to the planet must prepare for.

Avalanche

In this 2010 MRS image, a cloud of particles rises up a sheer cliff. Some may perceive this as a sign of a factory on Mars, but most likely it is the result of an avalanche consisting mainly of frozen carbon dioxide. According to NASA, in most cases, such an event occurs when it is spring on the planet, which on Earth corresponds to April - early May.

Did you order a donut?

A donut-shaped object (yes, many people actually see it in this photo) suddenly appeared in Opportunity's before-and-after photos. Some speculated that it was an alien mushroom.

The space agency has solved the donut mystery, explaining its unexpected appearance by the fact that it was moved by the Mars rover during its research. For a complete set, snacks have yet to be found on the Red Planet.

Waffle Island on Mars

Donuts didn't work out on Mars, but NASA still has to figure out other edible finds on the planet. At the end of 2014, MRS captured an amazing wafer-shaped island on the surface of the planet. Measuring about 1.2 miles wide, it is in an area of ​​lava movement. So you won’t find waffle irons on Mars, since, most likely, the observed shape of the island is the result of the movement of lava pushing the formation from the bottom up.

Dragon scales

Even NASA is excited about Game of Thrones, otherwise how can one explain why the space agency described this photo from the MRS as “Dragon Scales of Mars”.

The scaly pattern is not made by a mythical creature, but is the result of long-standing landscape processes associated with erosion. When NASA released this image in July 2017, it said the nature of how water interacts with rock and turns it into clay is not yet fully understood.

shiny object

In 2012, the Curiosity rover captured a bright, shiny object amid the dim landscape of Mars. All photos cover an area of ​​1.6 inches. NASA scientists have confirmed that the tiny bright piece is part of the geology of Mars.

floating spoon

Look at the center of the image taken by the Curiosity rover. Here you can see a spoon with a long handle casting a shadow downwards. Do you think people on Mars like to cook? But no. Mars has a weaker gravitational pull than Earth, so fragile formations like this one can float without falling to the surface.

A piece of metal on Mars

On Flickr, fans observing the surface of Mars have enhanced an image captured by Curiosity in early 2013 and highlighted an area that looks like a piece of metal. The explanation is not as funny as the imaginary races of alien blacksmiths. The object is either part of a meteorite, or simply came under strange lighting.

Table Mountain

In 2017, MRS looked down and captured this bizarre view in a region known as Noctis Labyrinthus, or the Labyrinth of Night. The undulating features around the mesa are sand dunes.

Heavily eroded, with boulder clusters and sand dunes on its surface, this layered mesa appears to be composed of sediment that is exhumed as it erodes.

Bright light at the end of the tunnel

In 2014, the Curiosity rover captured an interesting image showing a flash of light on the horizon of Mars. UFO fans became active and began to speculate about the light source as confirmation of the existence of aliens.

NASA scientist Doug Ellison shattered their illusions by explaining the flash of light by the passage of cosmic rays, that is, high-energy particles flying in space.

Part of the Mars rover

The next incident occurred in 2012, when the Curiosity rover noticed a shiny object on the surface that did not match its surroundings. However, the explanation turned out to be quite simple: NASA said that the object was a small piece of plastic that fell from the rover itself.

Mars rover sees "sticks"

It is difficult to judge the size of objects in close-up photographs of Mars. This image from Curiosity shows stick-like shapes, but they are only 6 millimeters long. Scientists speculate that they may be crystals or minerals.

Miniature meteorite

In mid-autumn 2016, while exploring the base of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater, Curiosity discovered a small iron meteorite. The object could easily fit in the palm of your hand, so at first scientists mistook it for a stone. However, in close-up photographs, researchers saw a complex surface structure, indicating that it was a meteorite. As a result, this find was called the “Stone Egg” (Egg Rock).

Shiny item

The explanation for the shiny object spotted by the Curiosity rover is quite disappointing. Using the ChemCam instrument installed on the rover, NASA scientists determined that this was just a piece of plastic from the rover itself. The agency believes that it will not have a negative impact on the environment. And we can create fictional stories about how this piece of plastic will attract the attention of an alien race hiding on the Red Planet.

Strange deep hole

NASA doesn't have a definitive answer regarding the strange circular pit spotted by MRS in 2017, but the circular formation is likely the result of a surface collapse or an impact crater.

The pit is located near the south pole of the planet. In the summer, when the sun is low, the circle really stands out against the background of the surrounding landscape.

Statue of a woman on Mars

In 2007, the Spirit rover's camera captured images of small rocks on the surface of the Red Planet. One formation stood out because it looked like a small walking humanoid (or Bigfoot).

The famous UFO blog UFO Sightings Daily began to speculate that this statue of a woman was created by the inhabitants of the planet. The Planetary Society quickly labeled the object an optical illusion and another manifestation of pareidolia, our brain's ability to assign familiar images to random shapes or sounds.

Another woman on Mars

On Mars, a rock in the shape of a woman has been encountered more than once. The following image from the Mars rover Curiosity excited adherents of alien theories in 2015. A small dark object surrounded by a red circle resembles a figurine of a girl in a dress. To discover it, you only need a strong imagination.

NASA media relations specialist Guy Webster, commenting on this situation, said that, as in this case, in photographs of Mars it is very easy to find rocks or other things similar to terrestrial objects.

A crab monster crawls on Mars

In July 2015, Curiosity took a photo that may have been mixed in with hundreds of other photos of Mars. However, she became famous thanks to a Facebook group that took a close-up of one tiny fragment of the photo and assured everyone that there was what looked like a crab monster lurking in the shadows. It could easily pass for Cthulhu.

Ultimately, the crab creature seen is just a funny interplay of light and shadow that will remain a rock formation.

Bigfoot skull

It's fun to imagine what aliens on Mars would look like if they were real. You might conjure up images of big heads with big black eyes, or something with crazy tentacles and sharp teeth. While searching for alien life on the Red Planet, UFO fans spotted a strange figure that they believe is the skull of Bigfoot.

The presented photo was taken by Curiosity in early 2016. The random rock was thought to resemble a skull with a round top and large eye sockets. Is this really a Bigfoot skull? Of course not. It's just a rock that might inspire funny sci-fi stories about Bigfoot on Mars.

Head of the Ancient God

The left half of the image was taken by the Opportunity rover, and the right half shows the Neo-Assyrian goddess, whose statue is in the British Museum. Did you see a slight resemblance? It was first noticed by UFO fans, who drew attention to this rock on Mars.

As with other Earth-like rock formations on the planet, this is the result of our imagination and random light working together, and not the sign of an alien civilization with a penchant for carving sculptures.

Remains of the lander

The European Space Agency's ExoMars mission suffered a setback when its lander, Schiaparelli, crashed while landing on Mars in October 2016. MRS took this photo to help European Space Agency investigators figure out what happened to the ill-fated lander. A large dark spot corresponds to the crash site. Other highlighted areas show the front heat shield, parachute and rear heat shield.

Equipment for landing the rover

These prominent circles are located in the Eagle Crater (Eagl) on Mars. Look carefully at the upper right corner. Notice the little dot inside? This is the landing site that helped the Opportunity rover land on the planet's surface in 2004. The small dot in the lower left corner of the image is the outer shell and parachute.

NASA shared this recent photo of the landing gear in the crater in April 2017.

South Pole of Mars

This photo of the landscape resembles worm tracks or a strange anthill. In fact, it was the MRS that photographed the south pole of Mars in 2016. The surface of the pole consists of carbon dioxide (dry ice). There are no such formations created naturally on Earth.

The circular pits are holes in the dry ice layer that expand several meters every Martian year, NASA explains.

The face of a kissing alien

Get ready for a kiss! This Mars rock wants to kiss you. The unusual formation looks like a human face with eyes, nose, forehead, chin and kissable lips.

Alien fans spotted this rock while viewing images captured by Curiosity in 2016. It's a fun formation, but it's not a sign of alien life on the Red Planet.

Photos of aliens

With some free time and a little effort, anyone can find rocks on Mars that look like human or alien faces. The next two “faces” were captured by Curiosity in 2016. Again, this is explained by the pareidolia effect.

Blueberry

It's not edible. These hematite-rich beads are known by the cute nickname “blueberries.” In 2004, near Fram Crater, the Opportunity rover noticed small rocks a few millimeters in size.

Scratches on Mars

What does it look like? Claw marks? This is an image of a series of wavy lines captured by MRS in 2017. The space agency says the linear gullies were likely formed by dry ice sliding down the slopes of sand dunes.

Collection of spheres

In 2004, Opportunity captured a stunning image of a hematite-rich “blueberry.” In 2012, he photographed a similar unusual formation, but this time on the Kirkwood outcrop.

Kirkwood's beads do not have the iron-rich blueberry composition and also differ in concentration, distribution and texture, NASA says.

These balls puzzled the space agency. The effects of erosion can be seen on some of the tiny spheres.

Bomb

In December 2017, a popular UFO fan blog posted a close-up of a spherical object spotted by the Curiosity rover and suggested it was a cannonball left over from a war on the Red Planet. The NASA rover team responded on Twitter that the clump is less than 5mm in size and is actually made of calcium, sodium and magnesium sulfate.

Mars was named after the god of war, but these strange things are not cannonballs. This is a pebble. With a radius of 5 mm, they are composed of calcium, sodium and magnesium sulfate, which distinguishes them from hematite-rich "blueberries".

Impact crater measuring about three kilometers

The surface of Mars is a dry and barren wasteland, covered with old volcanoes and craters.

Dunes through the eyes of Mars Odyssey

Photos show it can be hidden by a single sandstorm, hiding it from sight for days. Despite its formidable conditions, Mars is better studied by scientists than any other world in the solar system, except our own, of course.

Since the planet has almost the same tilt as Earth, and it has an atmosphere, it means there are seasons. The surface temperature is about -40 degrees Celsius, but at the equator it can reach +20. On the surface of the planet there are traces of water, and relief features formed by water.

Scenery

Let's take a closer look at the surface of Mars, information provided by numerous orbiters, as well as rovers, allows us to fully understand what the red planet is like. The ultra-clear images show dry, rocky terrain covered in fine red dust.

Red dust is actually iron oxide. Everything from the ground to small stones and rocks is covered with this dust.

Since there is no water or confirmed tectonic activity on Mars, its geological features remain virtually unchanged. Compared to the surface of the Earth, which experiences constant changes associated with water erosion and tectonic activity.

Surface of Mars video

The landscape of Mars consists of a variety of geological structures. It is home to plants known throughout the solar system. That's not all. The most famous canyon in the solar system is Valles Marineris, also located on the surface of the Red Planet.

Look at the pictures from the Mars rovers, which show many details that are not visible from orbit.

If you want to look at Mars online, then

Surface photo

The images below are from Curiosity, the rover currently actively exploring the red planet.

To view in full screen mode, click on the button at the top right.

Panorama transmitted by the Curiosity rover

This panorama represents a section of Gale Crater where Curiosity is conducting its research. The high hill in the center is Mount Sharp, to the right of it you can see the ring rim of the crater in the haze.

To view in full size, save the image to your computer!

These photographs of the surface of Mars are from 2014 and, in fact, are the most recent at the moment.

Among all the features of the landscape of Mars, perhaps the most widely publicized are the mesas of Cydonia. Early photographs of the Sedonia region showed a hill shaped like a “human face”. However, later images, with higher resolution, showed us an ordinary hill.

Planet sizes

Mars is a pretty small world. Its radius is half that of Earth, and it has a mass that is less than one tenth of ours.

Dunes, MRO image

More about Mars: The planet's surface consists mainly of basalt, covered with a thin layer of dust and iron oxide, which has the consistency of talc. Iron oxide (rust, as it is commonly called) gives the planet its characteristic red hue.

Volcanoes

In ancient times, volcanoes erupted continuously on the planet for millions of years. Because Mars does not have plate tectonics, huge volcanic mountains have formed. Olympus Mons was formed in a similar way and is the largest mountain in the solar system. It is three times higher than Everest. Such volcanic activity may also partly explain the deepest valley in the solar system. Valles Marineris is believed to have been formed by the breakdown of material between two points on the surface of Mars.

Craters

Animation showing changes around a crater in the Northern Hemisphere

There are many impact craters on Mars. Most of these craters remain untouched because there are no forces on the planet capable of destroying them. The planet lacks wind, rain and plate tectonics that cause erosion on Earth. The atmosphere is much thinner than that of the Earth, so even small meteorites are able to reach the ground.

The current surface of Mars is very different from what it was billions of years ago. Orbiter data has shown that there are many minerals and signs of erosion on the planet that indicate the presence of liquid water in the past. It is possible that small oceans and long rivers once completed the landscape. The last remnants of this water were trapped underground in the form of ice.

Total number of craters

There are hundreds of thousands of craters on Mars, of which 43,000 are larger than 5 kilometers in diameter. Hundreds of them were named after scientists or famous astronomers. Craters less than 60 km across have been named after cities on Earth.

The most famous is Hellas Basin. It measures 2,100 km across and is up to 9 km deep. It is surrounded by emissions that stretch 4,000 km from the center.

Cratering

Most of the craters on Mars were likely formed during the late "heavy bombardment" period of our solar system, which occurred approximately 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago. During this period, a large number of craters formed on all celestial bodies in the Solar System. Evidence for this event comes from studies of lunar samples, which have shown that most rocks were created during this time interval. Scientists cannot agree on the reasons for this bombing. According to the theory, the gas giant's orbit changed and, as a result, the orbits of objects in the main asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt became more eccentric, reaching the orbits of the terrestrial planets.

August 6, 2012 back from the Curiosity rover after an eight-month journey. The device covered 567 million kilometers on its way to the Red Planet.

During this time, the Curiosity rover made discoveries that indicate the existence of favorable conditions for the life of microbes billions of years ago, did countless jobs with different instruments, drilled, fired lasers, took photographs, and sent 468,926 images to Earth.

Images from the Curiosity rover and news from the Red Planet over the past few years.

2. From a distance, the surface of Mars appears reddish-red due to the red dust contained in the atmosphere. Up close, the color is yellowish-brown with an admixture of gold, brown, reddish-brown and even green, depending on the color of the planet’s minerals. In ancient times, people easily distinguished Mars from other planets, and also associated it with war and created all sorts of legends. The Egyptians called Mars "Har Decher", which meant "red". (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

3. The Curiosity rover loves to take selfies. How does he do this, since there is no one to remove him from the side?

The rover has four color cameras, all of them with a different set of optics, but only one of them is suitable for . The automatic arm, called MAHLI, has 5 degrees of freedom, which gives the camera significant flexibility and allows it to “fly” the Mars rover from all sides. The movement of this camera arm is controlled by a specialist on Earth. The main task is to follow a certain sequence of movements of the automatic arm so that the camera can take a sufficient number of pictures for subsequent stitching of the panorama. The scenario for preparing each such selfie is first tested on Earth on a special test module called Maggie. (NASA Photo):

4. Martian sunset, April 15, 2015. At noon, the sky of Mars is yellow-orange. The reason for such differences from the colors of the earth's sky is the properties of the thin, rarefied atmosphere of Mars containing suspended dust. On Mars, Rayleigh scattering of rays (which on Earth is the cause of the blue color of the sky) plays a minor role, its effect is weak, but appears in the form of a blue glow at sunrise and sunset, when the light passes through a thicker layer of air. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | Texas A&M Univ via Getty | NASA):

5. Wheels of the Mars rover September 9, 2012. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | Malin Space Science Systems | NASA):

6. And this is a photo taken on April 18, 2016. You can see how worn out the hard worker’s “shoes” are. From August 2012 to January last year, the Curiosity rover traveled 15.26 km. (Photo by JPL-Caltech MSSS | NASA):

7. We continue to look at pictures of the Curiosity rover. The Namib Dune is an area of ​​dark sand consisting of dunes northwest of Mount Sharp. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | NASA):

8. Two thirds of the surface of Mars are occupied by light areas called continents, about a third are dark areas called seas. And this is the base of Mount Sharp.

Sharp is a Martian mountain located in Gale Crater. The height of the mountain is about 5 kilometers. On Mars there is also the highest mountain in the solar system - the extinct Olympus volcano, 26 km high. The diameter of Olympus is about 540 km. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

9. Photo from the orbiter, the rover is visible here. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | Univ. of Arizona | NASA):

10. How was this unusual Ireson hill formed on Mars? His story has become the subject of research. Its shape and two-color structure make it one of the most unusual hills that the robotic rover has passed by. It reaches a height of about 5 meters, and the size of its base is about 15 meters. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA0:

11. This is what the “traces” of the rover on Mars look like. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | NASA):

12. The hemispheres of Mars differ quite greatly in the nature of their surface. In the southern hemisphere, the surface is 1-2 km above average and is densely dotted with craters. This part of Mars resembles the lunar continents. In the north, most of the surface is below average, there are few craters and the bulk is relatively smooth plains, probably formed as a result of lava flooding and erosion. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

13. Another masterful selfie. (Photo: JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

14. In the foreground, about three kilometers from the rover, is a long ridge replete with iron oxide. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

15. A look at the path taken by the rover, February 9, 2014. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

16. The hole drilled by the Curiosity rover. This color of the rock beneath the red surface is not immediately obvious. The rover's drill is capable of making holes with a diameter of 1.6 cm and a depth of 5 cm in stone. Samples extracted by the manipulator can also be examined by the SAM and CheMin instruments located in the front part of the rover body. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

17. Another selfie, the most recent, taken on January 23, 2018. (Photo by NASA | JPL-Caltech | MSSS):

© © NASA Photo

People love mysterious space stories. And mysterious objects on Mars are traditionally at the top of cosmic curiosity. There, rock formations become faces, shadows become UFO landing sites, and pieces from a Mars rover become Donald Trump's head.

6. “The fish of my dreams.”

There is a fish rock on Mars, but there are no fish there. Curiosity caught this “catch” on its camera lens, and ufologists and proponents of the theory of the existence of Martians were delighted. But this is just a game of stone shapes and lighting. NASA says this about possible fossilized bones and animals on Mars: “Mars probably never had enough oxygen in the atmosphere to support complex organisms.”

7. Vortex.

A strange vortex appears in this Martian landscape captured by another NASA rover, Opportunity, in 2016. This is actually a real dust devil, just like on Earth. Martian dust devils alone can be up to 50 times wider and up to 10 times higher than those on Earth.

8. Donut.

It didn't exist, and then it appeared. A donut-shaped object appeared rather unexpectedly in a series of before-and-after images in Opportunity images. Some people thought it was an alien formation, but NASA announced that the sudden appearance of the donut was due to Opportunity dislodging a rock by driving over it. In general, there is no fast food on Mars.

9. Waffle.

The donut is not the only “food” formation on the red planet. An image from Mars orbit in late 2014 showed a strange, wafer-shaped island. The 1.2-mile "waffle" is located in an area of ​​lava flows. This is not evidence of giant wafers on Mars, but it does look a lot like a lava formation.

10. Bling.

If something shines somewhere, it already attracts attention. If something sparkles on Mars, these are mysterious signals. In 2012, Curiosity spotted a bright, shiny object in the faded Martian soil. To understand the scale: the entire image covers an area of ​​only 4 centimeters across. NASA scientists have confirmed that this shine is just some kind of quartz or something like that.

11. Spoon.

See the spoon in the center of the image? A long arm stretched out over the landscape, casting a shadow below? Is this proof that some giant chef is using this tool to make the donuts and waffles mentioned above? Unfortunately no. Mars does not have the same strong gravity as Earth, so such fragile rock formations can exist for a long time without collapsing under their own weight.

12. Metal structure.

Mars searchers have edited an image taken by Curiosity in early 2013 to highlight what appears to be a piece of metal. The likely explanation is much less impressive than a metal racing ship or an iron monster. The object is likely part of a meteorite or the result of a trick of light.

13. Bright light on the horizon of Mars.

The same Curiosity sent this curious photo in 2014, showing light on the horizon of Mars. The image excited UFO fans, who speculated that it could be evidence of alien activity.

NASA, as is usual with scientists, disappointed them by explaining that all the pictures with the mysterious “lighthouse” were taken with one camera. Other lenses did not reflect this point. Perhaps a cosmic particle hit the camera matrix, causing part of the sensor to “blind” and a white spot to appear on the pictures.

14. Mini meteorite.

In October 2016, Curiosity discovered a small iron meteorite that was initially thought to be a strange rock. The stone looks small, about the size of a palm, but a close-up showed its intricate surface. The researchers called it a “stone egg” and were wrong.

A camera for micro-imaging (ChemCam: Remote Micro-Imager), which is equipped with the rover, was pointed at the egg. And they determined the approximate composition. According to scientists from the University of Arizona (Arizona State University), the egg consists of an alloy of nickel and iron.

15. Strange deep hole.

NASA has not given a definitive answer about this strange circular pit captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2017. But, most likely, this is a crater formed due to a meteorite impact. The hole is located near the planet's south pole. At the end of summer, due to the short daylight hours, the pit stands out sharply from the surrounding landscape due to the play of light and shadow.

16. Female statue?

The Spirit rover took this image in 2007, showing a view of rock formations on the surface of Mars. One of them stood out. It looked like Bigfoot. And female.

17. Another woman on Mars.

As you already understand, there is no shortage of women on Mars. That is, there are two of them, at least. This image from Curiosity excited alien theorists in early 2015. The small object inside the red circle looks like a figurine of a lady in a dress. All you need to see it is a developed imagination.

18. A monster crab crawls on Mars.

Again the Curiosity image from July 2015. It was not noticed for a long time until a tiny fragment of the image was enlarged in one group on Facebook. And what looked like a strange crab-like monster appeared, lurking in the shadows. He is also very similar to Cthulhu. In any case, that’s what those who saw Cthulhu say. And these guys won’t lie again.

Of course, the crab on Mars is just a play of light and shadow on the rock. But it's so boring...

19. The face of an ancient god.

On the left is a cropped view of an image from the Opportunity rover. On the right is a Neo-Assyrian goddess statue from the British Museum. Notice the similarities? And some UFO fans too. As with all the mysteries of Mars that look like objects from Earth, it is a combination of human imagination and the play of light, and not a greeting from an extraterrestrial civilization with a penchant for stone carving.

20. Kissing face.

As we already know, there are many women on Mars. Therefore, it is no coincidence that this man seems to stretch out his lips in a kind of kiss. This stone was found in a photo from Curiosity by fans of the habitable Mars theory at the end of 2016.

21. How to find a “face” on Mars.

In a short time and with a minimum of effort, anyone can find rock formations that look like human or alien faces on Mars. Here are two "faces" with their features indicated. This image is from Curiosity, which captured this landscape in late 2016.

All it takes is imagination to harness the power of pareidolia, a phenomenon that causes people to see faces and shapes in inanimate objects.

The Curiosity rover, also known as NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), is celebrating a special anniversary. For 2000 Martian days (sols), he has been exploring Gale Crater on the Red Planet.

During this period, the robot made many important observations. Having selected just a few of them, the team of scientists working with Curiosity has prepared some interesting ones for you.

ABOUTlookingback. Throughout the history of the space age, we have received many spectacular images of planets. Many of them showed the Earth photographed from deep space.

This image from the Curiosity rover's Mastcam shows our planet as a faint speck of light in the Martian night sky. Every day, scientists from around the world fly Curiosity and study the Red Planet from 100 million miles away.

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Start. The first image from Curiosity arrived 15 minutes after the rover landed on Mars on August 5, 2012.

Photos and other data come to us through the interplanetary station Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which appears above the robot at certain intervals, which determines the structure of the working day on Mars, or sols.

This photo shows a grainy image from a Front Hazard Camera device (which researchers typically use to avoid obstacles in their path). This is the final destination of our journey - Mount Sharp. When the image arrived, we knew the mission would be successful.

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Reternalpebbles When we began to move along the surface of the planet (16 sols after landing), we soon came across these layers of pebbles.

The rounded shape of the fragments indicates that they were formed in an ancient shallow river. It flowed from the surrounding highlands, which were already four billion years old, and flowed into Gale Crater.

The inset image from the Mastcam device shows an enlarged view of the stone. Before the Mars Science Laboratory, we believed that the surface that was eroded by river water was all dark basalt. However, its mineralogical composition is not so simple.

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A rock lying in the bed of this ancient river on Mars has changed our understanding of how the planet's igneous crust and mantle formed.

Pradavnherlake. Before the vehicle landed and during the initial stages of the mission, researchers did not yet know for sure what exactly they were seeing in the terrain images obtained from the HiRISE camera of the Mars Reconnaissance Satellite. These could be lava flows or lake sediments.

Without detailed close-up photographs "from the surface" there was no certainty. But this image ended the debate and marked a turning point in the study of Mars. The Yellowknife Bay area contains layers of fine-grained sand and silt formed by rivers flowing into the ancient lake of Gale Crater.

We drilled the first 16 holes here at the John Klein site on Sol 182. This is done in order to take rock samples and send them to the spectrometer contained in the body of our rover. Clay, organic matter and nitro compounds obtained from the analysis indicate that the area was once a favorable environment for microbial life. Whether there was life here remains to be determined.

Deep waters. Around Sol 753, the rover approached the Pahrump Hills. Working at this site has given us an invaluable opportunity to understand what the environment once was like in Gale Crater.

Here, the rover discovered thin layers of shale that formed as particles settled in the depths of the lake. This means that Lake Gale was a deep reservoir, the water in which stood for a very long time.

Nopemating. Beginning on Sol 980, near Mount Stimson, the rover discovered a large layer of sandstone overlying lake sediments. So-called discrepancies formed between them - a violation of the geological sequence of layers.

This geological feature marks a time when, after millions of years of existence, the lake finally dried up. Erosion began, leading to the formation of a new soil surface - evidence of events that took place over an "indefinite period of time." An example of such inconsistency was found by pioneer geologist James Hutton at Siccar Point on the coast of Scotland.

PeSki Pustyni. Curiosity approached the Namib dune on Sol 1192. It belongs to the large Bagnold dune cluster. These are the first active dunes we've explored on another planet, so Curiosity navigated its way forward very carefully because shifting sands are an obstacle for rovers.

And although the atmosphere on Mars is 100 times less dense than the earth’s, it is still capable of transporting sand, forming beautiful structures similar to those we see in the deserts on planet Earth.

INwindsculpturess. The Murray Buttes, photographed by Mastcam on sol 1448, were formed from the same sandstone that the rover discovered near Mount Stimson.

This is an area of ​​dunes formed from lithified sandstone. They were the result of dune activity similar to what we saw in the modern Bagnold Strip. These desert deposits are located above the faults. This indicates that after a long period, the humid climate was replaced by an arid one, and the main factor in the formation of the environment in Gale Crater was the wind.

ABOUTpetrified silt. The Curiosity rover can analyze in detail the composition of rocks in the Gale Mountains. To do this, he uses a ChemCam laser and a telescope mounted on a mast. On Sol 1555, at Schooner Head, we came across ancient drying cracks of silt sediments and veins of sulfur rock.

On Earth, lakes are gradually drying up within their shores. This is what happened with Gale Lake here on Mars. Red marks mark the places in the rock where we aimed the laser. A small spark of plasma would appear, and the wavelength of light in the spark would tell us the composition of the shale and the veins.

Clouds in the sky. The rover took this sequence of images using navigation cameras (NavCam, Navigational Cameras) on Sol 1971, when we sent them into the sky. From time to time, on cloudy days, we can see fuzzy clouds in the sky of Mars.

These images are edited to highlight the difference and show how the clouds move across the sky. Three images show never-before-seen cloud patterns taking on a noticeable zigzag shape. Taking these images from start to finish took approximately twelve Martian minutes.

AboutpleadingselfieAnd. Over the years, thanks to the numerous selfies taken along the route, the Curiosity rover has earned itself such a reputation that it can easily compete with Instagram users.

However, these selfies are not just for self-admiration. They help the research team monitor the condition of work throughout the mission, because wheels can wear out and dirt accumulates. Curiosity takes these self-portraits using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on a mechanical manipulator - the “hand” of the work.

By merging many high-definition images, a photo is assembled. This particular photo was taken on Sol 1065 in the Buckskin area. It shows Curiosity's main mast with the ChemCam telescope, which is used to identify rocks, and the Mastcam camera.

In the foreground is a gray pile of waste rock particles (called tailings) left over from drilling.

Beforelyingroad. This is a panoramic shot from a Mastcam device. It shows the path that the Curiosity rover has covered over the past 5 years: 18.4 km from the landing site (Bradbury) to its destination - on the Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR, Vera Rubin Ridge).

Previously, this ridge was called hematite - due to the high content of the mineral hematite (red iron ore), which scientists obtained from orbit.

Because hematite predominantly forms in the presence of water, the site is of great interest to the Curiosity team, which is studying changes in conditions at Gale Crater throughout its geological history.

This important site is ideal for Curiosity to celebrate its 2000th sol. And for us, this is an observation deck from which we can look back at the numerous discoveries made during the rover’s mission.

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