A mysterious image published by the American agency NASA has sparked conspiracy theories and speculation about the existence of life on Mars on social media.
A hand-carved symmetrical portal to Mars, captured on May 7 by the agency’s Curiosity rover, is featured in the image released by NASA.
A rectangular opening is simply “a space between two fractures in a rock,” explains Ashwin Vasavada of the Mars Science Laboratory in an interview with Gizmodo.
Vasavada says the area photographed by Curiosity’s Mastcam “was formed from ancient sand dunes.” These dunes have piled on each other over the centuries.
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Because of the pressure from this constant buildup, the sandstone has fractured in different areas, so this opening is not a door, but is actually a small opening in the rock, which Vasavada believes is about 30 cm high.
These are usually vertical fractures in Martian sand dunes, and in this case, it appears that there were two vertical fractures, and the middle piece was removed, or perhaps one vertical fracture with its mass moved slightly, Vasavada explained.