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It has finally happened. Not content with (potentially) infecting the pristine Martian surface with our germs, it appears that we’ve sent a rat (yes, a whole rat) to the Red Planet. And this isn’t some far-fetched hypothesis, there’s photographic evidence!
This certainly isn’t the first time shapes on Mars have fooled the brains of many. What’s more, there’s a name for this psychological phenomenon: pareidolia — possibly an evolutionary trait.
Perhaps it’s time to engage some upper-level reasoning and realize that just because there’s a rock on Mars that looks like a rat (whether its a trick of the light, or if it’s genuinely shaped like a small mammal), it doesn’t mean that it is a rat. There is also the possibility that the whole “Mars rat” thing isn’t serious at all and judging by the way the initial report is worded, it could go either way.
Out of interest, a few years ago, I grabbed a high-resolution photo from NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity of an outcrop at Victoria Crater. After some time staring at the photo, I spotted over a dozen “faces” etched into the rock. Do you think Opportunity had wondered into an alien sculpture gallery? Or was it more likely that I’d been staring at the computer screen too long, wanting to spot odd, artificial shapes? Original image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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