A new NASA image from Mars had armchair scientists on social media in a frenzy. The crab monsters are coming! The crab monsters are coming! The photo shows a stone formation in front of what may be a kind of cave. Some say it looks a bit like a crab monster straight out of a science fiction tale, though.
From HuffPo:
Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer and Director of the Center for SETI Research, said not to worry though, that he gets images showing formations such as this one about once a week.
“Those that send them to me are generally quite excited, as they claim that these frequently resemble SOMETHING you wouldn’t expect to find on the rusty, dusty surface of the Red Planet,” he said via email. “It’s usually some sort of animal, but occasionally even weirder objects such as automobile parts. Maybe they think there are cars on Mars.”
He said it’s really just a phenomenon called pareidolia, or the brain’s ability to make shapes out of random objects — like seeing animals in clouds.
“Recognizing a crab in a landscape filled with wind-weathered rocks is no more surprising — nor more significant — than seeing a winking face in a semi-colon followed by a parenthesis. ;) “
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