15 Astonishing Photos of Mars That Baffled Astronomers and Changed Our Perception - Mystery Hunter

15 Astonishing Photos of Mars

The exploration of Mars has yielded a collection of astonishing and mind-boggling photographs that have captivated astronomers and reshaped our understanding of the red planet. From peculiar rock formations to strange patterns resembling familiar objects, these images have sparked curiosity and led to intriguing theories.

Let's delve into 15 of the most remarkable and perplexing photos of Mars that have left scientists and enthusiasts baffled.

15: Face on Mars

This one's a classic image that's also driven all sorts of intriguing theories about how this head showed up on the surface of the red planet. NASA's Viking One Orbiter zipped near Mars in 1976 and took this now iconic image of the surface.

What got everyone excited is the face-like formation in the upper center of the picture. Many people imagine it as having two eyes, a nose, and some weird hair. Some even claim that it resembles a young Elvis Presley, with a few people claiming that it even was an alien-built monument on Mars.

After some research, NASA decided to further explore the infamous Mars face with the Mars Global Surveyor, taking a fresh image of the face and showing a much blobbier, less stark formation. In short, it's just a mesa and not an alien-carved religious site.

14: Morse Code on Mars

A view snapped from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in February 2016 showed some strange formations on the surface of the red planet. The dark raised areas are a series of dunes that look a lot like the dots and dashes of Morse code.

All the same, it's striking and almost eerily deliberate-looking, the kind of thing that really does appear to have been created by an intelligent head. Unfortunately, the code spells out gibberish. Planetary scientist Veronica Bray analyzed the dune image and told Gizmodo the code word reads out to me.

13: The Mars Thigh Bone

Another picture that quickly sparked curiosity among the astronomer community was the NASA Curiosity Rover finding what resembled a thigh bone on the red planet.

In the photo description, NASA officials wrote that while this Mars rock may look like a femur (thigh bone), it is not the fossilized remains of a mysterious Martian.

12: Martian Blueberries

Trying to sort out the origins of these blueberries has always involved studying similar-looking spherical formations here on Earth. New research takes its inspiration from these terrestrial analogs to offer a new idea of the chemistry that may have gone into whipping up these Martian blueberries.

As aesthetic as the Martian blueberries look, they are nothing even remotely related to plants. The bluish balls are hematite-rich spherules spotted by the NASA Mars Opportunity Rover in 2004 near the Fram Crater.

11: Martian Tadpole

The next big thing spotted on Mars was the so-called Martian tadpole, a formation spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which could also be considered a yo-yo or a sperm. It's actually a circular crater with a tail that was carved out by water movement.

You can infer that water there is flowing outward because they have the necessary terrain height information. While it's widely accepted that the planet had a long-distant watery past, it doesn't currently host any amphibian life, as far as we know.

10: Martian Fish

There is a fish-shaped rock on Mars, which, for some reason, shook the entire astronomy world, despite there not being any actual fish on Mars, much less given the fact that there's no surface sea there. The rock shape and the lighting at the time of the photo combine to create the fishy look.

9: Martian Dust Devil

A mesmerizing dust jet appears far back in a scenic Mars landscape photo taken by NASA's Opportunity Rover in 2016. However, this is nothing more than a dust devil, just like the ones we have on Earth. A dust devil is a strong, well-formed, and relatively short-lived whirlwind ranging from small to large.

The primary vertical motion is upward. Dust devils are usually harmless but can, on rare occasions, grow large enough to pose a threat to both people and property. Towering dust devils are weather hazards on Mars and something future human visitors will need to be prepared to handle.

8: Waffle-Shaped Island on Mars

Next up, we have a waffle-shaped island on Mars spotted by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in late 2014. The 1.2-mile-wide feature is located in an area of lava flows. It's not evidence of waffle irons on Mars, but it might be the result of lava pushing the formation up from below.

Of all the things that astronomers could find on the red planet, dragon scales are high up there on the unexpected list. Resembling a dragon scale from Game of Thrones, most fantasy and science fiction fans will find themselves quite disappointed upon finding out that the scaly pattern from Mars doesn't come from a mythical creature but rather through ancient landscape processes involving erosion.

The nature of the water responsible for the alteration and how it interacted with the rock to form the clay remains poorly understood.

7: Martian Spoon

A suspended spoon is probably one of the least interesting things you'll find on the Martian surface. Yet, still, a long-handled spoon stretching out over the landscape was spotted by the NASA Curiosity Rover.

Fred Kaye, a sharp-eyed contributor to the Unmanned Space Flight forums, noticed the funny shape in a raw image taken by Curiosity during Mars Sol 1089, which translates to August 30th for us. It looks like a long-handled spoon delicately stretching out over the landscape, hovering above its own shadow.

6: Mars Bright Light

NASA's Curiosity Rover sent back a curious photo in 2014, showing a blip of light on the horizon of Mars. The image excited UFO fans who speculated about the light source, wondering if it might be evidence of alien activity.

NASA scientist Doug Ellison rained on the extraterrestrial parade with the explanation that the blip was likely caused by a cosmic ray hit, the result of high-energy particles flying through space.

5: Mars Curiosity Rover's Missing Plastic Piece

Next up, we have a piece of the Mars Curiosity Rover, which has been at the center of many unusual object sightings on the planet. A famous incident occurred in 2012 when the rover noticed a shiny object on the ground that didn't match its surroundings.

Speculation ranged from jokes about cufflinks to it even being an AOL CD. However, the explanation was a bit disappointing on NASA's end, with them claiming it to be a small plastic piece of the rover.

4: Marzalanche

Another intriguing and rather aesthetic picture, instead of scary, is the famous Marzalanche, which owes its name due to being an avalanche that happened on a steep Mars cliff. A cloud of particles puffs upward at a steep cliff in this 2010 image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

According to NASA, this sort of event happens mainly during the planet's springtime, which roughly corresponds to April and early May on Earth. Those ice blocks took a swan dive down a 1640-foot (500-meter) cliff face and triggered a huge dust cloud in the process.

In May, that cloud is on full display in the image released back then, which had astronomers completely shaken.

3: Martian Cannonball

In December 2017, a well-known blog for UFO enthusiasts posted a close-up look of a spherical object spotted by NASA's Curiosity Rover and suggested it was a cannonball left over from a war on the red planet.

NASA's rover team responded with a Twitter message, pointing out how the concretion is less than a quarter inch and is actually made up of minerals. Not exactly cannonball material, and much less the leftover of a war on Mars. It's actually made up of calcium sulfate, sodium, and magnesium.

2: Jelly Donuts

Yes, even jelly donuts have been spotted in Martian pictures in the past. A jelly donut-shaped object appeared rather suddenly in a set of before and after images from NASA's Opportunity Rover on Mars.

Some people believed it to be an alien fungus, but NASA was having none of that nonsense. Apparently, the rock resulted because a rover dislodged it after driving over it. If there's one thing we can be sure of, it's that NASA still hasn't found any snacks on Martian soil.

1: Labyrinth of the Night

Another intriguing image spotted by NASA's Reconnaissance Orbiter was the bizarre-looking formation in a region known as the Labyrinth of the Night or the Noctis Labyrinthus.

It is composed of clusters of sand dunes, boulders, and sedimentary deposits on the surface of the red planet that were each exhumed as they eroded, creating a mystifying yet still intriguing layered mesa on its surface.

In conclusion

The collection of astonishing photos from Mars has left astronomers and enthusiasts amazed, challenging preconceived notions and fueling our curiosity about the red planet. These images have revealed formations that resemble faces, Morse code, bones, blueberries, fish, and spoons, captivating our imagination.

While some photographs initially triggered speculations of alien life and lost artifacts, scientific analysis has provided explanations rooted in geological processes and natural phenomena. From dust devils and avalanches to the unexpected presence of a shiny object and jelly donut-shaped rocks, these images demonstrate the complex and dynamic nature of Mars.

As we continue to explore and study the red planet, these extraordinary photographs remind us of the endless wonders awaiting discovery and the importance of scientific investigation to unravel the mysteries of Mars.

If these images of Mars didn't leave you speechless, then you might want to check out our other article too.