Exploring the Mysterious ‘Door’ on the Surface of Mars: NASA’s Curiosity Rover Reveals Intriguing Findings

Since landing on Mars in 2012, the Curiosity rover has been exploring the surface of the Red Planet and providing a lot of valuable information about it. It also sends photos and videos to Earth that can sometimes surprise you. This was the case with an image taken by Mastcam where NASA spotted a door-like formation. Scientists very quickly managed to determine what they really are.

The photo was taken on May 7, 2022, when Curiosity rover explored the surface of Mars near a formation called the “East Cliffs”. The scientists’ attention was caught by an unusual looking crack in the rock, about 12 cm high and 40 cm wide, which, according to NASA, was similar in size to a dog door. Experts were quick to explain that this is nothing out of the ordinary, and that this type of open fracture is common in bedrock both on the Red Planet and on Earth.

Mysterious “door” on the surface of Mars

“Of course, it may look like a small door, but it’s actually a natural geological feature! It may just *look* like a door because your mind is trying to make sense of the unknown,” the Curiosity X rover team explained in 2022. (formerly Twitter). He added that “there are several linear fractures in the mound, but several fractures intersect at this point, which allows the rock to fracture at such sharp angles.”

NASA scientists also noted that the formation can be considered a door “to the ancient past.” It is, of course, about the possibility of better understanding the history of the fourth planet from the sun in the solar system. Experts believe that exploring Mars offers a chance to find answers to questions about the origin and evolution of life. They think one day Red Planet it can also become a place where colonies will be established and people will live.

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Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is of a similar opinion. His ambitious plan is to send people to Mars by 2050 and make man an interplanetary species. For this purpose, Musk wants to use the Starship spacecraft, on which SpaceX has been working since 2018. The billionaire’s vision assumes the construction of a habitat that will support life and carry out various experiments on the Red Planet. During one of his speeches, he mentioned that by 2050 he would like to place a million people on the Red Planet.

Karolina Modzelewska, journalist of Wirtualna Polska

2023-08-25 17:57:15
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