Forteana

All eyes are on the Red Planet once again after a bizarre ‘square structure’ on the Martian surface caused a cosmic commotion online.

SpaceX mogul Elon Musk fuelled the frenzy by posting on X (formerly Twitter), “We should send astronauts to Mars to investigate,” while infamous podcaster Joe Rogan also joined in the speculation. Is this finally the evidence we’ve all been waiting for…?

A newly resurfaced NASA Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera snap shows a rugged region around 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) wide. In the image, there’s a suggestively square(ish) feature that’s sparked heated chatter on social media and Reddit. Some swear it’s the remnants of an ancient Martian civilisation, claiming that ‘nature never makes neat squares’. But hold on to your space helmets – experts say the image has been edited to emphasise the shape, and even in the raw photo you’d have to squint to see anything distinctly rectangular.

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So why do we see squares, faces, or even Elvis in our toast? Blame pareidolia – our evolved tendency to spot meaningful patterns (like a lurking lion!) in random visuals. Carl Sagan famously noted that our ancestors who ran from anything resembling a predator were more likely to survive. So if you’re primed to pick out potential perils, it’s natural you might see squares on Mars – or canals, or pyramids, or the occasional ‘avocado rock’.