海角大神

Did Curiosity really find a levitating spoon on Mars?

Mars has seen its fair share of pareidolia in recent months. But a soup spoon? The debate goes on.

First Look

For a while, there was the Mars rat 鈥� or if you squinted, maybe some kind of lizard.

Then came the Martian聽jelly doughnut 鈥� later shown to be a piece of broken rock moved by the Opportunity rover. This summer, it was a pyramid, theorized by some to be the creation of intelligent life. NASA said it was just an ordinary rock.

For years, the curiouser and curiouser have speculated about structures on the Red Planet, and for all of NASA鈥檚 official dismissals, can鈥檛 seem to stop from hypothesizing about the Curiosity rover鈥檚 latest 鈥渟ighting鈥�: a floating spoon.

Users on Unmanned Spaceflight, an online forum moderated by the Planetary Society, described the object as 鈥渞idiculously long and delicate鈥� and a

鈥淥nce you spot it, it becomes obvious; it really does look like a spoon hanging in the air, just above the surface of some layered rock,鈥� Ian O鈥� Neill. 鈥淏ut as Mars is devoid of any civilization, advanced or otherwise, that is capable of manufacturing said spoon, there鈥檚 probably a more logical answer.鈥�

鈥淚t's unclear how old the delicate feature may be or how long it will be able to survive on the surface before its worn down by Martian weather,鈥� writes .

NASA has not confirmed what the object is, but it did say that the image could simply be another case of Martian pareidolia, according to the The term refers to a psychological phenomenon of people interpreting things they see as a familiar pattern or object.

The 鈥渟poon鈥� could be an optical illusion caused by the shadows, writes Discovery's Mr. O鈥� Neill. He goes on to :

So, once again, this little nugget of Mars pareidolia is a rock that happens to be shaped like a spoon. But it鈥檚 a fascinating rock, and an awesome find, providing some geological hints as to the erosion processes that can etch out such delicate formations on the surface of the Red Planet.