An image of Mars has revolutionized social media. So much so that even Elon Musk has commented on the red planet. It’s an image captured by the Mars Global Surveyor probe and has now gone viral. The image apparently shows a square on Mars, a mysterious structure that is part of Martian geology and has sparked all kinds of alien theories about the Martian surface.
People thought it was a square structure approximately 3 kilometers wide
It turns out that the image from the Mars Global Surveyor probe operated between 1996 and 2006. In 2001, that probe recorded a region inside a crater. What was unexpected was that more than 20 years later, the image would start circulating on social media, with people thinking it was a square structure approximately 3 kilometers wide. Someone commented on Reddit about this unusual shape, and everyone began to agree that they saw the same shape.
Pareidolia seeing familiar shapes in random objects
This is actually thanks to a phenomenon that has occurred before. Scientists call it pareidolia, which is simply seeing familiar shapes in random objects. It happens, for example, when we see animal shapes in clouds or sand, when we think we see the shape of a face in a stain on a wall, etc. The mind often plays a game of connecting familiar situations or things with unfamiliar ones.
Elon Musk said that “astronauts should be sent to investigate”
What happened with the image of Mars is that it turned out to be a manipulated snapshot. It has even been learned that better quality images were taken some time after the original snapshot people are talking about. And the most recent version shows how it is actually a natural formation, with slopes and protrusions typical of cliffs and rocky hills. In any case, the stir generated by the image of the geometric structure on Mars led Elon Musk to say that “astronauts should be sent to investigate” the site.
Knowing patterns is preferable to ignoring a real danger
The fact that this news has come to light doesn’t negate the fact that thousands of people saw something that didn’t really exist. Between pareidolia and the fact that these days, if something is a trending topic, it’s hard to keep quiet, it’s safe to say that internet users saw in the image what they wanted to believe. “Knowing patterns —even false positives— is preferable to ignoring a real danger. Running away from a lion that was just a shadow didn’t kill anyone. But failing to identify a real lion was fatal,” noted Carl Sagan. Humans have practiced this quality since the beginning of time, and it has helped them flee from predators and, in short, survive.
Ultimately, this incident hasn’t been isolated. It hasn’t only occurred with shapes, but also with objects and colors. A few years ago, when Twitter was just starting out and other social media platforms were getting off the ground, a photo of a blue dress went viral. It was a dress hanging on a hanger. It was a snapshot in which some internet users saw the dress, usually in white and blue or gold and blue. The photo caused quite a stir because then theories began to emerge about the colors and the reality and veracity of the image.
We can conclude by stating that we have no evidence that extraterrestrial structures exist on Mars. At least for now, and according to the official information we have from space agencies.
