Our curiosity about Mars is not new; quite the opposite, this planet has fascinated humanity for decades. This is because the images have surprised us ever since the first telescopes were pointed at the sky and we saw the red planet. We have even sent modern robots to the red planet, and each discovery seems to increase our curiosity about the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The latest discovery is a bizarre and enigmatic square, and we are still trying to understand what it is…
What does our search for patterns have to do with the discovery on Mars?
Before talking about this discovery itself, we need to try to understand why we, humans, look for patterns in everything we see. Okay, but what does this have to do with the discovery on Mars? Well, as our technology becomes more advanced, the satellites that orbit the Martian surface end up recording formations that feed both science and popular imagination. And what happens is: the records give rise to interpretations that border on the fantastic.
That’s where our search for patterns comes in. We usually see familiar figures in random objects, such as faces in clouds or animals in rock formations. Scientists call this pareidolia. This phenomenon is a crucial ability for our survival, since we need to quickly identify a predator among the foliage, which could save lives. According to Carl Sagan, American scientist and astronomer:
“Knowing patterns —even false positives— is preferable to ignoring a real danger. Running away from a “lion” that was just a shadow didn’t kill anyone. But failing to identify a real lion was fatal.”
And, well, that’s exactly what happens when we look at images of Mars. Some natural formations end up looking like artificial structures. Isolated rocks take on the shape of statues. And sometimes, craters and reliefs can even resemble a building with almost perfect geometric shapes.
The square structure is not that new
This enigmatic square discovered on Mars is just another example of our search for patterns. It comes from an image captured by the Mars Global Surveyor probe, which operated between 1996 and 2006. Back in 2001, the satellite recorded a region inside a crater. However, what no one expected was that, years later, the image began to circulate on social media with a curious highlight: many people saw a square-shaped structure, approximately 3 kilometers wide.
This square attracted so much attention that, in addition to being shared by Reddit users, it was also mentioned by figures such as Joe Rogan and Elon Musk. Musk even said that we should “send astronauts to investigate” the location (it’s no wonder the billionaire is planning to colonize Mars this year).
From square to face on Mars
Even though everyone was very excited about this discovery, experts have already come forward to clarify the facts. This is because the image that was circulating was digitally manipulated to accentuate the supposed geometry. They even took some better quality images a few years later, and the square that everyone was talking about was nothing more, nothing less than a natural formation, with slopes and protrusions typical of cliffs and rocky hills. In other words, until now, we still have nothing that indicates the presence of alien structures…
And just to give you an idea of how much we look for patterns, this case was just one among many. Another case that became very famous was the so-called “Face on Mars,” recorded in 1976 by the Viking 1 mission. Due to the low resolution of the image and the play of shadows, what was just a hill appeared to be a human face, leading to decades of speculation about alien artifacts. Now, a case that shocked even NASA itself was the serpent dust devil on Mars.
