Every now and then , the robots we ’ve send to Mars stumble across an interesting rock geological formation on their journey across the surface .
once in a while – as you ’d gestate when consider the geology of a whole other planet – it is something really interesting . In June , for instance , the Mars Perseverance rover snapped several images of a large , donut - mould rock .
The rock , beyond looking delicious , is unusual against the Martian landscape , leading the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence ( SETI ) Institute to evoke it could be " a magnanimous meteorite alongside smaller piece " .
Raw images from Perseverance showing the donut-shaped rock.Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP
As well as these cool finds , the rovers also trip up across lots of not - so - interesting rocks , which happen to look like objects from Earth , frombonesand adoorway , tofossilized Hydra head . The latest to tot up to this list is a giant"shark fin " and a " crab claw " .
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So , is it time to bow down to our Martian crab - shark overlord and tap for their mercifulness ? Not quite yet .
The phenomenon of see familiar patterns in object , like a crab pincer when you are looking at a rock , is calledpareidolia . In terms of our evolution , it makes sense that we spy pattern that could be a danger to us ( e.g. a snake or a hungry bear ) as quick as we perhaps can .
Carl Sagantheorized that the power to identify threats was imperative to our natural selection . Early humans that ran by from what they thought to be a lion hiding in the shrub exist . Those who could n’t make out this lion " pattern " would be eaten by it . And if they ran by but it plough out that the Panthera leo was in fact just a John Rock , that ’s fine ; those humans survive either way and pass on their genes .
Sagan suggest that finding patterns ( where traffic pattern exist or not ) was a vital precautional survival science , but could lead to the misinterpretation of random images or pattern of light as font and conversant objects . Such as looking at a sway on Mars and guess we ’ve chance a crab satellite .
[ H / T : Space.com ]
