The image of what appears to be a symmetrical, hand-carved Martian doorway, snapped by NASA’s Curiosity rover on May 7, has sparked a slew of speculation, conspiracy theories, and hopes for intelligent life on Mars.
While many were quick to assume “little green men” were to blame, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist Ashwin Vasavada encourages us to keep a level head. “It’s just the space between two fractures in a rock,” Vasavada said in an interview with Gizmodo. “We’ve been traversing through an area that has formed from ancient sand dunes,” they added.
Over eons, those dunes cement together, forming rock outcrops, while sands that constantly shift show different views of the planet’s surface.
The roughly rectangular opening is only a small part of a much larger image and barely a foot tall, meaning any “little green men” of Mars would be about the same size as a Leprechaun. But this hasn’t deterred the most avid alien-life theorists!
Scientists, however, aren’t as quick to jump to conclusions. “I think what we have here [is] either two vertical fractures, where the middle piece has been removed, or one vertical fracture, and the blocks have moved apart a little bit,” Vasavada said.
The dubious doorway is the latest in a long line of familiar-looking things that have been discovered on Mars by space enthusiasts. Spoons, squirrels, campfires, and women in dresses have all been seen in previous landscape shots.