When it comes to trying to find something spectacular outside our planet, people tend to see something meaningful in something so ordinary.

This is especially true when it comes to Planet Mars, wherein both space agencies and space fans have access to a number of information and photos taken by the most powerful orbiters and rovers. These photos have been poured over by alien theorists and UFOlogists in hopes of finding something extraordinary among the planet’s dry and dusty surface.

For years, these alien theorists have discovered a number of oddities such as a rat, a pig, a penguin and even a woman among Mars’ rocky surroundings. The images, of course, turn out to be a dud, but it has not stopped them from trying to find more.

This included the discovery of a “crab monster” lurking in the rocky tundra of Mars. The supposed crustacean was “captured” by NASA's Mars Curiosity rover a few years back. What’s interesting about the snapped photo is that a crab is a very likely organism or fossil that can be found on Mars, which scientists believe was covered by vast oceans.

The image developed infamy because many actually likened it to a Cthulhu, a mythical creature created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. Upon closer inspection of the photo, however, it was surmised that the image was nothing more than a product of light and shadow playing tricks on people by making a normal rock formation look extraordinary.

Some experts call this uncanny way of finding things on the Red Planet as our brain’s way of finding a pattern that could eventually lead to something actually important in the future. The process is known as Pareidolia, which is a normal neuro perceptual phenomenon according to neuroscientists from the University of Toronto.

The ability to see these irregularities might prove to be advantageous in the long run since it could give scientists direction as to which areas to explore on the Red Planet.

“Pareidolia is a normal neuro perceptual phenomenon. It happens in auditory and tactile domains as well … [pareidolia] helps us to be super alert to things … and thus is evolutionarily advantageous,” Dr. Kang Lee, a neuroscientist from the University of Toronto, said.

More than the odd shapes, the NASA rover Curiosity has been instrumental in a number of important discoveries such as determining the Red Planet’s radiation and even stumbling upon a patch of Martian surface with an interesting amount of methane gas, a substance often associated with living organisms.

Mars rock formation
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on July 10, 2019, Sol 2462 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 17:00:31 UTC.When this image was obtained, the focus motor count position was 13531. This number indicates the internal position of the MAHLI lens at the time the image was acquired. This count also tells whether the dust cover was open or closed. Values between 0 and 6000 mean the dust cover was closed; values between 12500 and 16000 occur when the cover is open. For close-up images, the motor count can in some cases be used to estimate the distance between the MAHLI lens and target. For example, in-focus images obtained with the dust cover open for which the lens was 2.5 cm from the target have a motor count near 15270. If the lens is 5 cm from the target, the motor count is near 14360; if 7 cm, 13980; 10 cm, 13635; 15 cm, 13325; 20 cm, 13155; 25 cm, 13050; 30 cm, 12970. These correspond to image scales, in micrometers per pixel, of about 16, 25, 32, 42, 60, 77, 95, and 113.Most images acquired by MAHLI in daylight use the sun as an illumination source. However, in some cases, MAHLI's two groups of white light LEDs and one group of longwave ultraviolet (UV) LEDs might be used to illuminate targets. When Curiosity acquired this image, the group 1 white light LEDs were off, the group 2 white light LEDs were off, and the ultraviolet (UV) LEDS were off. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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