Some corners of the internet have been buzzing over a spacecraft-snapped image of a “square” on Mars. The image highlights a geologic formation with a seemingly square-like shape. Alien enthusiasts speculated on social media about a possible archaeological site on the red planet, but the reality is much more mundane.
A manipulated version of the image that highlights a square-like shape has been floating around, but it’s important to visit the original NASA sources. The image of the square comes from NASA’s now-defunct Mars Global Surveyor and its Mars Orbiter Camera. MOC snapped the square’s region in 2001. The full image shows a slice of material within a crater. The so-called square is at the top of the slice. The spacecraft launched in 1996 and its mission ended in 2006.
Mars square structure gains attention
The square came to wider attention when it was shared on Reddit and X. Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan retweeted a view of the formation on Jan. 31 with an expletive-laced comment calling it “wild.” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk chimed in on the thread with, “We should send astronauts to Mars to investigate!” Musk has been pumping up the idea of sending humans to the red planet on a SpaceX Starship someday.
NASA JPL spokesperson Andrew Good sent along a different view of the square as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRise camera in 2018. “Look at the ‘corner’ that is really a cliffside unrelated to the rest of the ‘square,” Good says. The square-ness of the area is much less convincing in the MRO image. It’s not the base of a pyramid. It’s not the broken walls of a fortress. It looks like what it is: a geologic formation with mounds and prominent points.
While it’s fun to entertain the sci-fi idea of a long-lost civilization on Mars, we have yet to find evidence of life on the red planet, much less life that could create large-scale structures. The planet is currently inhospitable to life as we know it. NASA and its Mars rovers are investigating whether or not ancient, wetter Mars might have been home to microbial life. We haven’t answered that question yet, and may need to bring rock samples back to Earth to find out.
Seeing things on Mars
There’s a long history of human imagination running wild when it comes to Mars rocks and formations. Check out this “avocado” rock and these sea-creature-like rocks.
The so-called Face on Mars is one of the best-known examples of an attention-grabbing formation. NASA’s Viking 1 mission snapped an image of a Mars hill from orbit in 1976. The low-quality resolution, image artifacts and shadows made the hill look a bit like a human face, sparking speculation about the possibility of an alien artifact on Mars.
The face was just an eroded hill. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a more recent view of the Face on Mars, showing a clearer look at the hill. It no longer resembles a face.
The Face on Mars is a lesson in shadows, angles, image quality and human imagination. The Mars square embodies the same ideas. There are plenty of real wonders to behold on Mars, like these fascinating sulfur crystals and the largest known volcano in the solar system.
