WASHINGTON — Is there a door on Mars? That’s the question being asked by conspiracy theorists online after NASA released a new image taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover.
The grainy image captured by the discoverer’s mastcam on Sol 3466 (May 7) appears to show a cleanly cut hole in a rock face. There was no official NASA explanation for the sighting, but that hasn’t stopped online debate about what it shows.
One social media user described the scene as “a formation on Mars that looks like a portal and a wall nearby that looks artificial,” while another concluded, “swear to god there are at least.” 5 Martians camouflaged”.
Others were more practical, however, with one Reddit user saying, “It’s obviously not a small door, it’s just a flat piece of broken stone.”
The Mars discovery comes as the US Congress is due to hold its first public hearing on UFOs in over 50 years next Tuesday. The House Intelligence Committee’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation will consider the issue.
“The American people expect and deserve their government and intelligence leaders to seriously evaluate and respond to all potential threats to national security — particularly those that we do not fully understand,” said André Carson, chair of the subcommittee, the Democratic MP of Indiana, in a statement this week.
Federal officials released a report on documented cases of so-called “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” (UAP) in the summer of 2021. In it, the Director of National Intelligence investigated 144 cases of UFOs, but was only able to explain one.
On Wednesday, some sort of UFO “watchdog,” “UFO of Interest,” appeared to have debunked any talk of extraterrestrial life. A tweet from them instead reveals that the “door” is a “small alcove” in a much larger rock face.
About this raw image (https://t.co/hZxiepGQXx), what is it? An entrance to a secret underground tunnel? If we put it in context as part of the overall mosaic, we can see this small niche in a rock with other blocks, fractures, shapes and other erosive features throughout this rock face. pic.twitter.com/ou4Ze941HR
— ufoofinterest.org (@ufoofinterest) May 11, 2022
What do you think this photo of Mars really shows?
Report by Dean Murray, author of the South West News Service