NASA's Curiosity Rover currently exploring Mars has been beaming back images that show mysterious objects. There are, for instance, the photographs of a woman and the crab-looking creature, which were both reported by HNGN earlier. Other images include iguanas, pyramids and even those that being claimed to resemble President Barack Obama's face. A photograph in the recent tranche of images captured on Aug. 30 caught an observer's attention because this time it appears to contain a hovering spoon.
The floating cutlery was first pointed out by a member of the Unmanned Spaceflight forum from a screen grab of a video recently captured by Curiosity's Mastcam on sol 1089, according to the Daily Mail. Other users also pointed out similar looking and sometimes even bigger floating "spoons" in several other areas, prompting some to wonder whether the Martians have put them in place.
Scientists, however, have rejected the claim of a floating spoon, citing that it is merely a rock formation called ventifact or a rock shaped by the wind, said NASA in a Twitter post. Other experts explain that the way people see patterns or connections in seemingly random and unconnected data contained in the images and video taken by the unmanned mission is called apophenia, according to the Daily Mail report. It is supposed to be perfectly normal because it allows humans the ability to recognize faces in the crowd or determine the speed of objects.
There is no spoon. This weird Mars feature is likely a ventifact—a rock shaped by wind. Info: https://t.co/pF9UOlj7ct pic.twitter.com/p1CSNGCDuJ
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) September 2, 2015
Regardless, however, of whether the hovering spoon is a rock formation or not, there is still the fact that it looks truly amazing, especially in comparison to previous images and identified objects. It has perfect spoon-like form and does appear to be floating, complete with its shadow underneath.
