It’s more like a dog door, NASA jokes.

The photo has provided quite a bit of entertainment and a large number of wild stories in recent weeks. We are of course talking about the photo that Mars rover Curiosity took early this month of a knoll that can be counted as Mount Sharp; a 5.5-kilometer mountain in the heart of the Gale Crater on Mars. In that hillock there appeared to be a fracture that looked very much like a ‘door’.

Speculation

The photo went viral and sparked a lot of speculation. Some wondered if this was where the Martians were hiding. Others speculated busily as to where the doorway led to; was it perhaps a portal to New York or Narnia?

More information

And so happened what so often happens when we see something crazy in alien photos; our imaginations ran wild. That has not gone unnoticed by NASA either, because a few days later the American space agency – owner of photographer Curiosity – felt compelled to provide some background information with the photo.

dog door

For example, NASA has announced how big the door is. And that turns out to be a bit disappointing. For example, according to NASA, the door is only 30 centimeters high and 40 centimeters wide. “Comparable in size to a dog door.”

Natural origin

Any new speculations about Mars gnomes are also immediately suppressed by NASA. For example, the American space agency emphasizes that we are dealing with a natural break here. “Open fractures like this are common on both Earth and Mars,” the US space agency said.

New images

In addition, NASA has also released a number of new (3D) images of ‘the dog door’.

Some new images of the hill where a door-like fracture has been spotted. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Although the idea that Martians have carefully carved the ‘door’ into the hill can now definitely be thrown into the trash, that certainly does not mean that we can throw the whole idea of ​​life on Mars overboard. In fact, even NASA considers it highly likely that at least once there was life on the red planet. While Mars is dry and cold today, the planet would have been wet and warm in the past, making it a lot more attractive to life. Mars rover Curiosity is exploring Gale Crater — which must have housed an entire lake in warmer and more humid times — to learn more about that wet-to-dry transition. And elsewhere on Mars, the Perseverance Mars cart is even specifically searched for traces of (decayed) Martian life. For the time being without result, but so the proverbial door – when it comes to life on Mars – will remain ajar for the time being.