Perseverance Uncovers Mysterious Mars ‘Wall’ In Incredible New Photos

NASA’s Mars rovers have seen Martian rocks that look like frogs, worms, and more. Now, Perseverance has stumbled across one that has a striking resemblance to an ancient wall. On paper, Mars sounds like it’d be a very boring planet to visit. It’s a desolate wasteland filled with rocks, dust, sand… and that’s about it. There’s no flowing water, hardly any oxygen, and no living things to speak of at all. Compared to life on Earth, it’s a pretty miserable place.

However, that’s not to say Mars isn’t a visually interesting world. Despite its harsh environment, Martian rovers repeatedly showcase stunning sights from the Red Planet. Rovers like Perseverance and Curiosity often share photos of Mars’ stunning landscapes, huge mountains, vast dunes, and rock formations of unimaginable shapes.  Recently, Perseverance spotted a series of rocks that mimicked the appearance of a crashed spaceship!

Ensuring there’s not a dull moment in the Mars exploration world, Perseverance recently returned with another batch of Mars photos for us to gawk over. The rover’s rock collection mission is currently on hiatus due to some stuck debris, so it’s getting to spend extra time investigating the area around it. Among the new photos, the above one stands out as being particularly interesting. It’s a close-up shot of a Martian rock — something Perseverance has captured thousands of times. However, this one’s unique in that it looks almost identical to an ancient wall. The rock has distinct lines running across it, looking eerily similar to bricks placed on top of each other long ago. As some Twitter users have pointed out, it almost looks like wall structures created on Earth by the Inca Empire in the 1400s.

Other Rocks Perseverance Found While Patroling Mars

But a strange Martian ‘wall’ isn’t the only rock that caught Perseverance’s attention. The rover also spotted another collection of rocks scattered across the sandy surface. They look absolutely tiny compared to the monstrous dune behind them, but a closer look reveals more fascinating details. There’s a small line of rocks on top of a hill below the dune. Even further down are larger rock chunks strewn across the ground with no order or pattern.

For a planet so barren and dangerous to life, it’s always amazing how it continuously finds ways to be a thing of beauty. Dazzling dunes? Check. Mesmerizing yellow sky? Yep. Rocks that can look like anything from a frog to a wall? Of course! It’ll be a few more years before humans can experience these things for themselves, but when that day comes, it’ll be well, well worth the wait.

Source: NASA

About The Author

Joe Maring
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Joe has been actively writing and talking about consumer tech since 2012. His biggest passion lies with smartphones, but he’s happy to talk your ear off about just about anything with a CPU. He lives in Kalamazoo, MI with his wife, two cats, and pit bull/boxer mix.

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