NASAâs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recently completed its 60.000th trip around the Red Planet in May, and has been sending back incredible photos and valuable data since it was first launched in 2005.
But it appears that someone may have already landed on Mars, and they left a calling card for the world to see, according to Futurism.com:
âBut its on board HiRise high-resolution camera has never seen anything like this before: now itâs spotted a dune in the shape of the Starfleet insignia, from the fictional television show âStar Trek.â Perhaps Captain Kirk got there before Elon Musk did after all.â
Photo via NASA/JPL
What? Could it be? Has someone already boldly gone where no man has gone before? Not exactly:
This probably a coincidence caused by massive windstorms, lava, and other natural forces forming the Martian landscape â because the alternative is that one of those wacky âStar Trekâ time travel plots actually happened, which would be awful.
The NASA has discovered a dune in the shape of Starfleet -the famous logo from Star Trek on Mars,the MRO HiRISE camera,saidâEnterprising viewers will make the discovery that these features look conspicuously like a famous log,Youâd be right, but itâs only a coincidence pic.twitter.com/feZub0IpO0
Ross Beyer, Principal Investigator with the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, explained the bizarre âStar Trekâ figure the Mars Orbiter photographed:
âLong ago, there were large crescent-shaped (barchan) dunes that moved across this area, and at some point, there was an eruption. The lava flowed out over the plain and around the dunes, but not over them. The lava solidified, but these dunes still stuck up like islands.
âEnterprising viewers will make the discovery that these features look conspicuously like a famous logo: and youâd be right, but itâs only a coincidence.â
Despite that coincidence, actor William Shatner, who starred in the groundbreaking TV series, couldnât resist trolling the âStar Warsâ franchise:
