Does this passage lead to a secret Martian hideout?

The internet is captivated by the discovery of a supposed ‘door’ on Mars. In a recent photo taken by Mars rover Curiosity, a rather remarkable rock formation has been noticed. And you don’t even have to squint to see a perfectly carved doorway in that rocky outcrop.

The supposed door on Mars. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The photo in question can be seen above. The photo was taken using Curiosity’s Mastcam.

Door

There is a lot of speculation about the photo on Twitter. Because many believe that this can be proof of extraterrestrial life. The supposed door, they say, could lead to a secret Martian hideout.

A larger, colorized version of the original photo. The doorway is at the top of the image, a little to the left of center. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/NeV-T

However, it just depends from which side you look at it. British science journalist Mick West posted the photo below, in which the ‘door’ is visible from a different angle. “Now it looks rather uninteresting,” West writes.

Size

It will remain a matter of speculation for a while. Apart from the grainy photo, not much is known about the ‘door’. For example, it is also unclear exactly how big the ‘door’ is. Although it appears to be life-size according to our imagination, it is possible that the cavity we see is only a few centimeters in real life.

pareidolia

While it’s tempting to believe that what we see in the photo actually represents a door, an alternative theory seems more likely. And that is that we mainly see what we want to see. The human brain has a strong tendency to make something recognizable out of everything, something called pareidolia. This is useful when recognizing shapes that may indicate danger, such as the silhouette of a predator. But sometimes our brain goes a little too fast and sees connections or patterns that aren’t there. For example, some people see all kinds of animals in clouds, a face in the moon, or in this case a door in Martian rock.

Illusions on Mars

It is also not the first time that people think they have seen something recognizable on Mars. For example, a few years ago an entomologist claimed to notice insect- and reptile-like fossils in photos of several Mars rovers. In addition, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has also taken a photo that has stirred the spirits. The photo showed dunes with tree-like objects on them. However, these Martian trees turned out to be nothing more and nothing less than dark sand pushed to the surface through sand dunes by sun-heated carbon dioxide ice. The most famous optical illusion is the famous face on Mars. In 1976, NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter photographed this fascinating mountain. Table Mountain seemed to have a human face. The photo appeared in all the newspapers and was seen by many as proof of the existence of life on Mars. Of course, NASA scientists knew better and thought from the start that the face was an illusion caused by light and shadow.

Future photos will clarify whether a door has really been carved into the Martian rock or whether it simply represents a meaningless hole. Chances are, however, that the mysterious doorway is actually a little less spectacular than Twitter would have you believe.