The Curiosity snapshot of the Martian cliffs has made the internet awake. The point is a giant crab, which thousands of users saw in the image.
The photo was published by NASA back in July, but the silhouette of a crustacean with ten legs was noticed by fans of the Red Planet only a few weeks later. The picture quickly spread on social networks with the caption "They hide life on Mars from us" and caused a flurry of discussions.
Several hundred of the most active users asked the American space agency to return the rover to the rocks in order to take a clearer photo of the "incredible crab", "spider" or "alien" - the creature considered on the Web is called differently.
NASA specialists reacted to the idea with understanding. According to the senior astronomer of the SETI research center Seth Shostak, enthusiasts from all over the world send such photos almost every week.
“People tend to get excited about the belief that they have discovered something unexpected in the rusty dust of the surface of the Red Planet. Usually they talk about animals. But there are also more strange objects, for example, car parts, - quotes the expert Mirror.
The scientist explained the numerous "findings" by the transition - a feature of the brain, due to which people can see the usual forms in random objects - for example, animals in the clouds.
NASA said the rocks captured by Curiosity are formed by a compound containing high levels of silicon and oxygen, which occurs on Earth in the form of quartz. This, presumably, explains the emergence of an unusual piece of rock.
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