A bizarre square object has been spotted on the surface of Mars, and now SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wants to take action to investigate it.
For many years now, Tesla and X owner Elon Musk has made it clear that making ‘humanity multiplanetary’ is at the forefront of his technological pursuits.
He set up his aerospace company SpaceX all the way back in 2002, with a vision to create commercial spaceflights, but also to establish a colony on Mars within his lifetime.
In the time since, he has launched more than 100 rockets into orbit - mind you, a fair few of these have exploded mid-air.
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So it won’t come as a surprise that when Musk recently caught wind that a mysterious geometric shape had been spotted on Mars, he announced his desire to investigate.
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The photo of the unusual shape first started doing the rounds on Reddit, according to Twitter user Chris Ramsay.
Sharing two versions of the image on the platform, he wrote: “Photo from a square structure on Mars posted to reddit. It is indeed real.
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“This image originates from the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC).
“The original image can be viewed through Arizona State University's Mars Image Explorer.”
While the images shared by the account appear to have been edited to enhance the square-like shape, it certainly still piqued the interest of those online - including podcaster Joe Rogan.
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Rogan reshared the post on Twitter, writing: “This is f***ing WILD.”
It was at this point the image caught the attention of Musk, who shortly after replied to Rogan's post: “We should send astronauts to Mars to investigate!”
The shape is estimated to be 3km (1.8 miles) wide and it was first spotted by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor’s Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), according to Arizona State University's Mars image explorer.
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The images have led to a raft of speculation about the origins of the angular shape, including the inevitable suggestion: aliens.
One Twitter user commented: “Humans invented squares. Before we were there, they did not exist as it was literally impossible for a square to form without human interaction. Aliens.”
Another added: "Not to get ahead of myself, but I’m salivating at the idea it’s similar to the base of the Pyramids in Giza."
But others were less convinced, with one explaining that it’s possible for such shapes to occur naturally. They wrote: “Natural geological fracturing can cause right angles like that. It's not amazing to search an entire planet and find one or two. Amazing would be finding so many it’s approaching a statistical impossibility."
Jenny Medlicott