The conspiracy theorist community was delighted by the latest images to be released by NASA from the Mars Curiosity rover, seemingly showing a partially cloaked woman walking on the surface.
The “woman” is measured to be only 10 cm in height which does nothing to discourage theorist from concluding that we now have the final proof of alien life on Mars.
Astronomers claim that it is just a rock and it will be easy to prove, later images will provide different views of the area and if the “woman” is still there it will most likely be a rock formation, unless of course, the aliens make a habit out of standing in the same place for days at a time.
The famous “face on Mars” photographed by the Viking 1 probe was thoroughly debunked by pictures taken from different angles and astronomers expect the same for this sighting.
The phenomenon of seeing faces and human figures in everything from cloud formations to coffee stains is called Pareidolia and is also suspected to be the main cause behind miraculous events and sightings such as the (in)famous “Jesus in the Tortilla”
Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26. and landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on August at the Bradbury Landing site, less than 2.4 km from the center of the rover’s touchdown target.
The rover’s goals include: investigation of the Martian climate and geology; assessment of whether the selected field site inside Gale Crater has ever offered environmental conditions favourable for microbial life, including investigation of the role of water; and planetary habitability studies in preparation for future human exploration.
In 2013 Curiosity transmitted data indicating that Mars had a habitable invironment in the past, this was the first of many groundbraking discoveries the car-sized rover would return during it’s longmission.
Powder from some of the drill samples that the rover obtained showed content of nitrogen, sulfur, oxygen, carbon and phosphorus, these are considered the building blocks for life, the findings may not be the final proof of life but was considered exciting by the mission scientists.
Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration program at NASA said “A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment… From what we know now, the answer is yes..”
