Mars Curiosity Rover has taken a strange image of a crab-like object

[Locutus]

THE Mars Curiosity Rover has taken a strange image that has left space enthusiasts captivated.

Captured by NASA, the image shows a crab-like object on the surface of the red planet.

Since emerging online, social media has been abuzz with users claiming the finding is proof of alien life.

However, scientists have been quick to offer a logical explanation for the mystery object by attributing it to a phenomenon called pareidolia.

Senior astronomer at the Centre for SETI Research Seth Shostak explained it was the same phenomenon that causes peoples brains to see shapes in clouds.

“Recognising a crab in a landscape filled with wind-weathered rocks is no more surprising — nor more significant — than seeing a winking face in a semicolon followed by a parenthesis,” he told the Mirror.

Mr Shostak said images such as this were nothing new, claiming he is sent at least one a week.

“Those that send them to me are generally quite excited, as they claim that these frequently resemble something you wouldn’t expect to find on the rusty, dusty surface of the Red Planet,” he said.

“It’s usually some sort of animal, but occasionally even weirder objects such as automobile parts. Maybe they think there are cars on Mars.”

The Mars Curiosity Rover has taken a strange image of a crab-like object on the red planet | News.com.au

 

[Liberalman]

What not a weather balloon

 

[Blackleaf]

However, scientists have been quick to offer a logical explanation for the mystery object by attributing it to a phenomenon called pareidolia.

Yeah, that's the easy explanation they always give whenever an eagle-eyed member of the public spots an extraterrestrial or some clearly artificial anomaly on the surface of Mars, such as the face - "It's just pareidolia." It's just an easy, simple excuse for them to make and then, in a few weeks time, the public will have largely forgotten about it and the cover-up can just continue.

 

[#juan]

crablike?, star fishlike?,lobsterlike?.....It doesn't matter. Mars had oceans at one time...All are possible.

 

[Twila]

OMG! it's Cthuhula showing itself on the red planet...

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Yeah, that's the easy explanation they always give whenever an eagle-eyed member of the public spots an extraterrestrial or some clearly artificial anomaly on the surface of Mars, such as the face...

Except that time they were right, and they're probably right this time too. Gotta keep up Blackleaf, and not be so credulous when something suits your obvious biases in favour of the mysterious and the supernatural. The face on Mars was first seen in images from the Viking orbiter in the 1970s, and nobody would deny that it certainly does resemble a face in those images. Higher resolution images taken in 1998 by the Mars Global Surveyor clearly showed it to be a natural formation, an eroded mesa that doesn't really look like a face at all. Perceiving it as a face in a low resolution image is indeed pareidolia.

 

[Cannuck]

They can make whatever they want appear on Mars considering it's all created in a film studio in Area 51. I know this to be a fact because I saw it on The X Files.

 

[Mowich]

Yeah, that's the easy explanation they always give whenever an eagle-eyed member of the public spots an extraterrestrial or some clearly artificial anomaly on the surface of Mars, such as the face - "It's just pareidolia." It's just an easy, simple excuse for them to make and then, in a few weeks time, the public will have largely forgotten about it and the cover-up can just continue.

And Elvis is hiding in the Space Station.

 

[Ludlow]

ain't no use, standin on the seat, crabs in here can jump ten feet. ~Luke the Drifter

 

[spaminator]

wonder if the martian seafood is any good?

 

[Kreskin]

If NASA suspected the possibility of life it would be broadcasting it, not covering it up.

 

[#juan]

If NASA suspected the possibility of life it would be broadcasting it, not covering it up.

I was thinking it was a Martian fossil, not a living creature, but who knows....

 

[Locutus]

maybe it's one of them thar ghosts, spirits or spooks. maybe even a beast.

 

[petros]

What did it eat?

 

[#juan]

What did it eat?

Well, if Mars produced crabs,it certainly something for the crabs to eat.....or there wouldn't be any crabs....or crablike creatures...:lol:

 

[coldstream]

Remember the 'Face on Mars' in the Cydonia region of Mars, photographed from Space.

I saw a fascinating exposition the phenomenon by someone which put it all in the context of a surrounding 'City' of precise geometrical forms that would have to have been necessarily the product of an advanced culture.

Later pictures without the shadow effects actually showed it to be a fairly typical mound, with out any intentional facial forms. I'll wait until they get some pictures in different perspectives and light.. and even then i assume it is the remnants of some kind of lava bubble or small meteor impact.

 

[Locutus]

could be a SiO2-based life-form...or not...what do I care.

 

[AnnaG]

THE Mars Curiosity Rover has taken a strange image that has left space enthusiasts captivated.

Captured by NASA, the image shows a crab-like object on the surface of the red planet.

Since emerging online, social media has been abuzz with users claiming the finding is proof of alien life.

However, scientists have been quick to offer a logical explanation for the mystery object by attributing it to a phenomenon called pareidolia.

Senior astronomer at the Centre for SETI Research Seth Shostak explained it was the same phenomenon that causes peoples brains to see shapes in clouds.

-----

The Mars Curiosity Rover has taken a strange image of a crab-like object on the red planet | News.com.au

I had a picture of western civilisations' idea of what Jesus of Nazareth looked like on my pancake, too. Unfortunately for the cloudy-minded (please excuse the pun, but it was intended), if JoN actually existed as indicated in the babbling Bible, he undoubtedly looked middle-eastern, not like a '70s light-haired and light-eyed hippy.
I'll stick with facts and the adage, "appearances can be deceiving", thanks.