The long-term mission of NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered something very interesting on Mars for Star Trek fans. The famous delta-shaped emblem, which often adorns the uniforms of officers of fantastic history, is found in a photo taken by the rover.
Jokes appeared on social media after the photo was posted. Amateur astronomer Scott Atkinson also joked about this topic. “I bet the Star Trek fans on the @MarsCuriosity team smiled like Cheshire Cats when they saw this new image appear on their screens,” Atkinson wrote.
I bet the Star Trek fans on the @MarsCuriosity team smiled like Cheshire Cats when they saw this new image appear on their screens… 🙂
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech pic.twitter.com/SdWyq4Sc5P
— Stuart Atkinson (@mars_stu) January 10, 2024
The image was published by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The photo was taken on January 9 on the 4062 sol of the mission using the rover’s left navigation camera. First of all, it is worth noting that this is not a convincing proof of the “presence of aliens”, but only an interesting find of a strangely shaped rock, nothing more.
The Curiosity rover landed on the Red Planet in August 2012, and now it continues to actively explore the Red Planet in search of remnants of traces of life in the distant past.
Now the autonomous laboratory is exploring Mount Sharp, observing its various layers, which reflect different stages of the history of Mars. Interestingly, at the time of the picture, it was in an area filled with sulfates, which may lead to new discoveries.
The rover is also preparing for scientific research of dark rock, which can reveal important data about the composition and texture of Mars. Behind the curiosity of the research is the desire to reveal how the landscape of the planet has changed over time.
The success of the Curiosity mission gave the green light to send the next Perseverance rover in 2020. Its task is to look for signs of past life on Mars. Moreover, NASA is planning a mission to return samples from Mars to study in more detail the materials that the rover left behind. However, problems with financing and technology may delay this ambitious plan until 2031.
Earlier, we reported on how Curiosity set an outstanding record.
According to Space.com
Follow us on Twitter to get the most interesting space news in time
https://twitter.com/ust_magazine
