Latest nasa images from the planet mars. From pyramids to forests: the most mysterious photos of Mars. Strange finds on Mars

People love mysterious space stories... And in the top of space curiosity are traditionally mysterious objects on Mars. There, rock formations turn into faces, shadows turn into UFO landing sites, and pieces from the rover turn into Donald Trump's head.

6. "The fish of my dreams."

There is a fish rock on Mars, but no fish there. Curiosity caught this "catch" in the lens of its camera, and ufologists and supporters of the theory of the existence of the Martians were delighted. But this is just a play of stone shapes and lighting. NASA says this about possible fossilized bones and animals on Mars: "Mars probably never had enough oxygen in the atmosphere for complex organisms."

7. Whirlwind.

A strange vortex appears in this Martian landscape captured by another NASA rover, Opportunity, in 2016. This is actually a real dusty vortex, just like on Earth. Only Martian dust eddies can be up to 50 times wider and up to 10 times higher than those on Earth.

8. Donut.

It was not, and then it appeared. The donut-like object appeared rather unexpectedly in a series of before and after images of Opportunity. Some people thought it was an alien formation, but NASA announced that the sudden appearance of the "donut" was due to the fact that Opportunity knocked out a stone while driving over it. In general, there is no fast food on Mars.

9. Waffle.

Donut is not the only "food" formation on the red planet. Images from Mars orbit in late 2014 showed a strange waffle-shaped island. The 1.2-mile waffle is located in the lava flow area. This is not evidence of giant waffles on Mars, but it looks a lot like a lava formation.

10. Sequin.

If something glitters somewhere, it already attracts attention. If something glitters on Mars, these are mysterious signals. In 2012, Curiosity spotted a bright, shiny object in the faded Martian soil. To understand the scale: the entire image covers an area of only 4 centimeters across. NASA scientists have confirmed that this luster is just some kind of quartz or something.

11. Spoon.

See the spoon in the center of the image? A long handle stretched out over the landscape casting a shadow below? Is this proof that some giant chef is using this tool to make the donuts and waffles mentioned above? Unfortunately no. Mars does not have the same strong gravity as on Earth, so such fragile rocky formations can exist for a long time without collapsing under their own weight.

12. Metal construction.

Seekers of the Unusual on Mars have edited the image taken by Curiosity in early 2013 to emphasize the object, which looks like a piece of metal. The likely explanation is far less impressive than a metal racing ship or an iron monster. The object is likely part of a meteorite or the result of a play of light.

13. Bright light on the horizon of Mars.

Curiosity posted this curious photograph in 2014 that showed light on the horizon of Mars. The image excited UFO fans who speculated it could be evidence of alien activity.

NASA, as usual with scientists, disappointed them, explaining that all the pictures with the mysterious "beacon" were taken with one camera. Other lenses did not reflect this point. Perhaps, a cosmic particle hit the camera matrix, as a result of which part of the sensor was "blinded", and a white spot appeared in the images.

14. Mini meteorite.

In October 2016, Curiosity discovered a small iron meteorite that was initially thought to be a strange rock. The stone looks small, palm-sized, but a close-up reveals its bizarre surface. The researchers called it the "stone egg" and were wrong.

A micro-imaging camera (ChemCam: Remote Micro-Imager), which the rover is equipped with, was pointed at the egg. And they determined the approximate composition. According to scientists from the University of Arizona (Arizona State Universitу), the egg is composed of an alloy of nickel and iron.

15. A strange deep pit.

NASA hasn't given a definitive answer about this strange circular pit captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2017. But, most likely, this is a crater formed due to the impact of a meteorite. The pit is located in the region of the planet's south pole. At the end of summer, due to the short daylight hours, the pit stands out sharply from the surrounding landscape due to the play of light and shadow.

16. A female statue?

The Spirit rover captured this image in 2007, showing a view of rock formations on the surface of Mars. One of them stood out. It looked like Bigfoot. Moreover, the female sex.

17. Another woman on Mars.

As you already understood, there is no shortage of women on Mars. That is, there are at least two of them. This image from Curiosity excited alien theorists in early 2015. The small object inside the red circle looks like a figurine of a lady in a dress. All it takes to see it is a developed imagination.

18. The monster crab crawls across Mars.

Again Curiosity snapshot from July 2015. He was not noticed for a long time until a tiny fragment of the image was enlarged in one Facebook group. And there appeared what looked like a strange crab-like monster lurking in the shadows. He is also very similar to Cthulhu. In any case, those who saw Cthulhu say so. And these will not lie once again.

Of course, the crab on Mars is just a play of light and shadow on stone. But it's so boring ...

19. The face of an ancient god.

Left is a cropped image from the Opportunity rover. On the right is a neo-Assyrian goddess statue from the British Museum. Noticed the similarities? And some UFO fans do too. As with all the mysteries of Mars, similar to objects from Earth, this is a combination of human imagination and the play of light, and not a greeting from an extraterrestrial civilization with a penchant for stone carving.

20. Kissing face.

As you already know, there are many women on Mars. Therefore, this man, who stretched out his lips in a kind of kiss, does not look casual either. This stone was found in a photo from Curiosity by fans of the theory of inhabited Mars at the end of 2016.

21. How to find a "face" on Mars.

In a short time and with a minimum of effort, anyone can find rock formations similar to human or alien faces on Mars. Here are two "faces" with their features. This image is from Curiosity, which captured this landscape in late 2016.

All it takes is imagination to harness the power of pareidolia, a phenomenon that makes people see faces and shapes in inanimate objects.

Recently, on one of the images of the Curiosity rover, which NASA published on its official website, ufologists discovered a silhouette resembling the figure of a woman.

Let's take a closer look at this and other similar cases.

Ghost woman

The silhouette looks so believable that for some it may be the embodiment of a desire to find extraterrestrial life. The picture is complemented by the fact that the "ghost" seems to be standing on a stone, demanding attention.

Yeti

The legendary find of the Spirit rover. Photo from 2008, which shows the silhouette of a creature, as it were, wandering through the red desert. Due to the fact that his pose reminded of the famous shot, where the Bigfoot was allegedly captured, the mysterious stranger was nicknamed the "Martian Yeti".

Alien Temple

A snapshot of the 2008 Mars rover Opportunity, in which the layered rock reminded ufologists of the creation of human (or alien) hands. The hoaxers suggested that the shot captured the entrance to the destroyed temple with a large monument that welcomes visitors. The "Martian ship" immersed in the sand was also discovered nearby.

Trees

A 2011 image taken by the Reconnassance Orbiter space station for which there is a fairly simple scientific explanation. First, if these were trees, then, judging by the image, they would grow parallel to the surface of the planet. Secondly, such marks in the sand are the result of the evaporation of frozen carbon dioxide.

Temple face

A legendary photo that excited the minds of people in the late seventies and early eighties. Then many decided that some civilization had built a temple in the shape of a human face on Mars.

Giant emoticon

In 1976 spaceship Viking Orbiter 1 has discovered a giant smiley face on Mars. In 1999, with clearer shots, scientists were able to take a closer look. We are talking about a crater with a radius of 230 kilometers. The find was later used in the famous Watchmen comic.

Ball

In September 2014, the Curiosity rover sent a snapshot of a flawless-looking ball lying on the planet's surface. However, NASA quickly cooled the fervor of ufologists: the size of the "artifact" is about one centimeter in diameter, and it turned out, most likely, as a result of a geological process called nodule. During it, something like a snowball forms around some small solid body.

Small helmet, bone and a Martian rat

No, these are just stones.

Flash Light

The Curiosity snapshot, taken in April 2014, gave ufologists a reason to assume that aliens accidentally gave themselves away with a flash in the dark. However, NASA scientist Doug Ellison dispelled the myth, suggesting that we could talk about the impact of a cosmic ray - a stream of charged particles.

Drawing on the ground

The only real artificial artifact on Mars is the footprints left by the Curiosity rover.

Just a couple of days ago, in one of the pictures, a mysterious find, the "Martian crab", was again discovered. These photos, posted on the official NASA website, have spread all over the media and other sources of information and caused a lot of controversy. We present you a video about this photo.

August 6, 2012 back the Curiosity rover after an eight month journey. The device covered 567 million kilometers on its way to the Red Planet.

During this time, the Curiosity rover made discoveries that indicate the existence of favorable conditions for the life of microbes billions of years ago, did countless works with different instruments, drilled, fired a laser, photographed, sent 468,926 images to Earth.

Images from the Curiosity rover and news from the Red Planet over the past few years.

2. From a distant distance, the surface of Mars looks reddish-red due to the red dust that is contained in the atmosphere. Close up, the color is yellowish-brown with an admixture of golden, brown, reddish-brown and even green, depending on the color of the planet's minerals. In ancient times, people easily distinguished Mars from other planets, and also associated it with war and composed all kinds of legends. The Egyptians called Mars "Har Decher", which meant "red." (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

3. The Curiosity rover is very fond of taking selfies. How does he do it, because there is no one to remove it from the side?

The rover has four color cameras, they all differ in a different set of optics, but only one of them is suitable for. The MAHLI automatic arm has 5 degrees of freedom, which gives the camera a lot of flexibility and lets the camera fly around the Martian rover from all sides. The movement of this hand-camera is controlled by a specialist from the Earth. The main task is to follow a certain sequence of movement of the automatic hand so that the camera can take a sufficient number of shots for the subsequent stitching of the panorama. The scenario for preparing each such selfie is first worked out on Earth on a special test module called Maggie. (Photo by NASA):

4. Martian sunset, April 15, 2015. At noon, the sky of Mars is yellow-orange. The reason for such differences from the color scale of the earth's sky is the properties of the thin, rarefied atmosphere of Mars containing suspended dust. On Mars, Rayleigh scattering of rays (which on Earth is the cause of the blue color of the sky) plays a minor role, its effect is weak, but manifests itself in the form of a blue glow at sunrise and sunset, when light passes through a thicker layer of air. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | Texas A&M Univ via Getty | NASA):

5. Wheels of the rover on September 9, 2012. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | Malin Space Science Systems | NASA):

6. And this is a photo on April 18, 2016. It can be seen how the workaholic's “shoe” has worn out. From August 2012 to January last year, the Curiosity rover covered 15.26 km. (Photo by JPL-Caltech MSSS | NASA):

7. We continue to watch images of the Curiosity rover. Dune Namib is a dark sand area of dunes to the northwest of Mount Sharp. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | NASA):

8. Two-thirds of the surface of Mars is occupied by light areas, called continents, about a third - by dark areas called seas. And this is the foot of Mount Sharp.

Sharpe is a Martian mountain located in Gale Crater. The height of the mountain is about 5 kilometers. On Mars, there is also the highest mountain in the solar system - the extinct volcano Olympus, 26 km high. The diameter of Olympus is about 540 km. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

9. Photo from the orbiter, here and the rover is visible. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | Univ. Of Arizona | NASA):

10. How was this unusual Ireson Hill on Mars formed? Its history has become the subject of research. Its shape and two-tone structure make it one of the most unusual hills around which an automated rover passed. It reaches a height of about 5 meters, and its base measures about 15 meters. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA0:

11. This is how the "traces" of the rover on Mars look. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | NASA):

12. The hemispheres of Mars are quite different in the nature of the surface. In the southern hemisphere, the surface is 1–2 km above average and is densely cratered. This part of Mars resembles lunar continents. In the north, most of the surface is below average, with few craters and relatively smooth plains, likely from lava flooding and erosion. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

13. Another masterful selfie. (Photo JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

14. In the foreground, about three kilometers from the rover, is a long ridge teeming with iron oxide. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

15. A look at the path that the rover has made, February 9, 2014. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

16. The hole drilled by the Curiosity rover. This color of the rock beneath the red surface is not immediately apparent. The rover's drill is capable of making holes 1.6 cm in diameter and 5 cm deep in the stone. Samples taken by the manipulator can also be examined with SAM and CheMin instruments located in the front of the rover body. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

17. Another selfie, the freshest taken on January 23, 2018. (Photo by NASA | JPL-Caltech | MSSS):

Mars, which is also called the Red Planet, in these photos may surprise you with its by no means red landscapes. Some of the pictures look like amazingly beautiful paintings by a famous artist. See the most beautiful pictures Mars.

14 PHOTOS

1. Deposit of hematite - iron ore - in the area of the Meridian Plateau. (Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona).

The photographs of Mars are so unusual and beautiful that it is difficult to believe that these are not paintings. Probably the same conclusion was reached by NASA employees, who created an Internet page called "Mars As Art" or "Mars as a work of art." Most of the photos in our gallery are from there - mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/marsasart.

2. This image was taken from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Due to optical illusion dark spots they look like trees in the photo. In fact, these are landslides of the Martian dunes caused by the sublimation of carbon dioxide. (Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona).

3. Chaos Aram - the remains of an eroded impact crater, which is located almost at the very equator of Mars and is covered with a huge amount of iron oxide or common rust. (Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona).

4. Olympus Mons - a huge volcanic crater - its height exceeds 30 kilometers. This is the highest point in the solar system. (Photo: NASA / Seddon / Wikipedia).

5. A crater in the Great Northern Plain with an ice sheet visible. During the Martian winter, the ice is still covered with a layer of dry ice - carbon dioxide in solid form, which sublimes (turns into gas) in the summer. (Photo: ESA / DLR / Freie Universitat Berlin (G. Neukum)).

6. This photo appears to be the original tattoo, but in reality it is an intricate and sinuous pattern created by ... dust. On Mars, as on Earth, wind often blows off the top layers of the soil, exposing deeper ones. (Photo: ASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona).

7. Panoramic photo of the eastern edge of Endeavor crater, taken from a distance of about 30 kilometers. (Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell).

8. Hellas Plain (also known as the Hellas Impact Pool). The cracks visible in the photograph are 1 to 10 meters wide. (Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona).

9. Mars dust whirlwind, photographed from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. A similar phenomenon exists on Earth. (Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona).

10. Southeast slopes of the volcanic crater Olympus - the highest point in the solar system. (Photo: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / G. Neukum).

11. A new impact crater that was captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on November 19, 2013. (Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona). 14. Photo from the Curiosity rover, taken by him during a mission to Mars. Curiosity drills holes in Martian soil to take samples and samples for testing. (Photo: NASA / REUTERS).

The Curiosity rover landed on Mars as part of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission in 2012. The rover is an autonomous chemical laboratory several times larger and heavier than the previous Spirit and Opportunity rovers. The task of the apparatus is to travel from 5 to 20 kilometers in a few months and carry out a full analysis of the Martian soils and atmospheric components. Auxiliary rocket motors were used to perform a controlled and more accurate landing. For several years of its operation, the rover has provided a lot of interesting data and made many picturesque images of the Red Planet.

Experts studying the UFO phenomenon suspect the American aerospace agency NASA of deceiving the century. In one of the images recently taken from the surface of the Red Planet by the rover "", a strange flying object hit the camera lens. In shape, it resembles a flying eagle. Is NASA really deceiving us, or does someone just have a very strong imagination?

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