More Photos of Mars, and We Found a Spoon

Bright Side

The folks at NASA dropped some new pics of the Red Planet, and guess what? They spotted something that looks suspiciously like a spoon. Yep, you heard that right—a spoon on Mars! Now, before you start planning your Martian picnic, it's probably not an actual spoon. But still, it's got people buzzing about what else might be hiding out there. I mean, who knows what other surprises Mars has up its sleeve, right? So, grab your space gear and let's keep exploring!  #brightside   Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Listen to Bright Side on:  Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official/ Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-bff1-4a40-9731-2c8234ccb19f/1866144599336960  Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00 There are tons of weird things on Mars. Spoons, noodles, doors, even faces.

00:06 Are they all really just rocks?

00:08 Besides, it's not the only planet in our solar system full of mysterious things.

00:13 Let's check them out.

00:14 Recently we found a strange thing on Mars that looks like a smooth, spoon-like object.

00:22 It grabbed everyone's attention after NASA's Curiosity rover spotted it.

00:26 The rock, with a handle and rounded tip, looks like it's floating in the rover's photo.

00:31 People on the internet are puzzled about what it might be.

00:34 Some are joking that it's a Martian's bowling pin, or even a shoehorn left by extraterrestrial creatures.

00:41 But Andrew Good from NASA says it's not that exciting.

00:45 Turns out it's just a rock shaped by the wind over a long time.

00:49 These kinds of rocks with odd shapes are common on Mars.

00:53 They're called ventifacts.

00:55 Ventifact is a rock that can get scratched, dented, or smoothed out by tiny particles carried by the wind.

01:02 You'll usually find these kinds of rocks in dry places where there's not much grass or trees to block the wind,

01:08 and where there's a lot of sand blowing around.

01:10 Sometimes the wind can carve ventifacts into really cool shapes,

01:14 like the mushroom rocks you can see in the White Desert National Park in Egypt.

01:19 These rocks look like giant mushrooms because the wind wears away the bottom part faster than the top,

01:24 making them stand tall and slim.

01:27 Ventifacts aren't the only cool Martian rocks.

01:33 Check out this series of surreal spikes protruding from the red surface.

01:37 NASA's Curiosity rover stumbled upon them while exploring the Gale crater on Mars.

01:42 They quickly caught everyone's attention.

01:44 Twisting structures resembling spikes look like some extraterrestrial doors.

01:49 Even the SETI Institute, an organization focused on searching for extraterrestrial life,

01:54 tweeted about the image, referring to it as a "cool rock."

01:59 But in reality, these are just hoodoos.

02:02 These tall and thin spires occur when hard rock sits atop softer rock layers.

02:07 Martian spikes are likely cemented fillings of ancient fractures in sedimentary rock,

02:12 with softer material eroded away over time.

02:16 Again, there are many hoodoos on Earth, too.

02:19 They're also called fairy chimneys or tent rocks.

02:22 You can find them in places like Utah's Bryce Canyon and the Colorado Plateau.

02:27 NASA is excited about these weird structures because they can help us learn more about the history of the Gale crater.

02:34 There was also a rock that looked like a jelly donut.

02:41 We call this rock Pinnacle Island.

02:44 It was spotted by NASA's cameras.

02:46 However, just four days earlier, it was nowhere to be seen.

02:49 So how did it magically disappear?

02:52 In a very anticlimactic way, it was kicked up by one of Opportunity's wheels as it traversed the Martian terrain.

02:58 But there's still some mystery surrounding that jelly donut.

03:02 Analysis revealed that Pinnacle Island contains unusually high levels of sulfur and manganese.

03:09 Both of these things are water-soluble.

03:11 In other words, there might have been some water action that created these elements in the rock.

03:16 So this tiny thing suddenly caused a lot of drama, and an entire lawsuit against NASA.

03:22 It claimed that the agency failed to investigate a possible fungus growing on Mars.

03:27 Mmm, jelly donut fungus.

03:31 But not all our findings are natural.

03:36 Another puzzling discovery was this thing the Perseverance rover spotted.

03:41 It's something that looks like tangled spaghetti or string.

03:44 Just like the donut, this mysterious object showed up in a rover camera image,

03:49 and then vanished from the sandy ground in several days.

03:52 It turns out that it could be debris from the rover's landing system.

03:57 Perseverance landed in the Jezero crater in February 2021.

04:01 It had a rough landing and accidentally scattered debris around.

04:05 Some of these debris pieces have been showing up in the rover's images for a while now.

04:11 The string-like object is likely a piece of shredded Dacron netting,

04:14 which is a type of fiber used in thermal blankets.

04:18 These blankets help regulate equipment temperatures during the super-hot process of landing on Mars.

04:24 It probably underwent significant unraveling and shredding due to strong forces during the landing.

04:34 Thermal blankets lost a bunch of stuff back then.

04:37 For example, this shiny foil piece spotted in June.

04:41 The rover found it on a rock.

04:43 What's remarkable is how far some of the debris has traveled.

04:47 The rover landed about 1.2 miles away from where it's currently exploring.

04:52 It's probably because the crash threw the debris into the air,

04:56 and the Martian winds carried it over such a distance.

04:59 Mars is known for its strong winds, which can move lightweight objects.

05:04 However, while it's fun to stumble upon them on images,

05:07 there are concerns about the debris and trash on Mars.

05:11 We haven't even fixed this problem on Earth, and we're already creating it on Mars.

05:16 The debris we left on the red planet is already accumulating in an area called Hogwallow Flats.

05:23 Plus, the debris can accidentally contaminate the sample tubes used for collecting Martian rocks.

05:29 So far, NASA isn't overly worried about this,

05:32 but they're keeping a close eye on it to prevent any issues with the rovers.

05:37 Now, how about not things, but animals?

05:43 Curiosity caused quite a stir when it captured something that looked like a rat on Mars.

05:49 Some started speculating that it could be evidence of indigenous Martian life,

05:54 or even that this rodent was brought along by Curiosity.

05:58 But the Mars rat, once again, turned out to be just a weird rock.

06:03 It looked interesting because of the natural processes like wind erosion and mechanical abrasion.

06:09 We also found some worm-looking things.

06:12 Curiosity snapped a picture of a formation that looks like worms wriggling across the Martian landscape.

06:19 Despite its tiny size, this formation stands out with its unique shape and rough texture.

06:25 It's probably made of durable material resistant to Mars' harsh erosion.

06:30 And finally, our top mysterious finding is the face on Mars.

06:39 Cydonia is a region on Mars that has captured both scientific and popular interest.

06:45 It's located in Mars' northern hemisphere.

06:48 It lies between heavily cratered regions to the south and relatively smooth plains to the north.

06:54 There's a theory that the northern plains may have once been ocean beds.

06:58 Maybe Cydonia was once a coastal zone.

07:02 This place is full of interesting and beautiful features that tell us a lot about the history of the Red Planet.

07:09 But its most interesting feature was the Martian face.

07:13 This thing gained widespread attention when it was snapped by the Viking 1 orbiter in 1976.

07:20 Some believe that it was evidence of a long-lost Martian civilization.

07:24 At first, NASA dismissed it as a trick of light and shadow.

07:29 But after some analysis, it turned out to be, yep, another rock.

07:34 We also saw a face of a bear.

07:37 It was captured by the High Resolution Imaging Experiment camera.

07:41 In an image, we can see a circular fracture pattern that looks like a bear's head,

07:46 with two craters forming the eyes and a V-shaped collapse structure like the nose.

07:52 The "head" likely formed because something heavy settled on top of an old hole in the ground.

07:58 This hole was filled with either lava or mud.

08:01 The nose-like feature is speculated to be a volcanic or mud vent.

08:06 But why do we keep seeing these strange things on Mars?

08:13 Sometimes our brains can trick us into seeing things like faces or objects in rocks and other things.

08:19 But these are just illusions called periodolia.

08:22 Periodolia is a psychological phenomenon that makes us see familiar patterns or shapes,

08:28 especially faces, where none actually exist.

08:31 It's because the brain encounters something it doesn't recognize or understand right away.

08:36 It tries to find things that look the most like this one.

08:40 So it sees random patterns, textures, or sounds as something meaningful and recognizable.

08:46 That's why a chair and clothes on it seems like a super creepy human-like figure at night.

08:52 It also causes you to see faces or shapes in clouds,

08:56 or hear recognizable sounds and even words in random noise.

09:01 It's a fascinating proof of the power of our perception.

09:04 But we also should be careful with it and not let our imagination run wild.

09:10 That's it for today!

09:11 So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

09:16 Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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