Mars is one of the most mysterious and strange planets in the Solar System. The rovers and satellites sent there repeatedly sent strange and mysterious photos to Earth, initially surprising even scientists. Euphologists and those who support the theory of the existence of Mars’ intelligentsia are usually happy about this. So, in this article we will find out what is hiding behind the five most mysterious five photos of Mars.

Mars Forest

The “Forest Belts” near the North Pole of Mars were photographed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in April 2008, and by the end of 2015 the image was published by NASA in an astronomical image. This photo is like an abstract painting or dark trees rising from the surface of Mars.

The dark brown stripes actually resemble tree branches, but in reality they are just an optical illusion. Scientists believe that these “trees” appeared as a result of the melting of dry ice (a solid form of carbon dioxide). This process exposes the brown sand, which leaves strange debris and moves down the slopes of the hills, creating the illusion of trees.

Fish on Mars

In 2016, Rover Curiosity took this photo of the surface of Mars. Between the rocks and the fragments of rocks, you can see the fossilized remains of a forked fish. Ufologists were overjoyed at this finding. After all, there is a lot of speculation that Mars even had a real ocean of liquid water.

But NASA suddenly disappointed everyone. This “fish” actually turned out to be an ordinary stone, and its strange appearance is just a game of light and shadow.

Spoons of Mars

These spoons, copied by the rovers, were also a game of light and shadow. All of these rocks are the result of various atmospheric and cosmic phenomena such as wind, radiation, ultraviolet light, temperature changes, etc. on the soil of Mars. Also, as mentioned earlier, scientists do not rule out the possibility that water may once have been in liquid form on Mars, so this may well affect the planet’s geography and carve rocks of various shapes.

Face on Mars

A familiar face on Mars photographed by Viking I in 1976 led to many pseudo-scientific and euphological theories about ancient Martian civilizations. Many books and movies have been written about it.

Scientists have long studied the shape of this mountain, which is only the result of the interaction of rocks with natural phenomena, not an artificial object. The special shape of the mountain, the play of light and shadow, as well as our rich imagination painted a picture of our face. Scientists have long presented all photos of this object in high quality and with different lighting (e.g. photo below), but ufologists still continue to study images from forty years ago.

Statue of a woman on Mars

This photo (the main photo in this article) was taken by Rover Spirit in 2007. Some blogs about UFOs have published numerous articles on what is known as the “female form – a monument made by aliens”, while others have written about a female snowman. But common sense tells us that this is an optical illusion similar to the human silhouette.

All of the above objects depicted on the surface of Mars are a good example of a peridolia – a visual illusion in which a person is vague, incomprehensible to the viewer, or even an auditory image is expressed and something definite. The same effect works when looking at the shapes of clouds and seeing the shapes of people or animals there.