Arch Look

NASA Rover Finds Ancient Stone Arch on Martian Surface

"I'll leave it up to the scientists to explain what the hell is going on here."
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NASA's Curiosity rover has found something awesome on the surface of Mars: a small, naturally-formed stone arch in Gale Crater.
Image: NASA

Arch Nemesis

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found something on the surface of Mars which, in scientific language, can only be described as “absolutely awesome”: a small, naturally-formed stone arch in Gale Crater.

You can spot the arch in NASA’s official photo repository, as CNET reports, but NASA-JPL engineer Kevin M. Gill stitched the images together for an even better glimpse of the strange formation.

“I’ll leave it up to the scientists to explain what the hell is going on here,” he quipped.

Rock On

Is there any chance the arch is evidence of an ancient Martian civilization?

Almost certainly not. The landscape back on Earth is dotted with arches that formed naturally, so there’s no reason to think that Mars would be any different.

Any alien architects behind NASA’s latest find would also have to be quite diminutive; as CNET points out, the entire field of view is only about half a foot, meaning that the arch is quite tiny.

READ MORE: NASA rover spots ‘whimsical’ rock arch on Mars that’s defying wind, dust [CNET]

More on Mars: Elon Musk Reportedly Demanded to Be Made CEO of Apple

Jon Christian Avatar

Jon Christian

Executive Editor

I’m the executive editor at Futurism, assigning, editing, and reporting on everything from artificial intelligence and space exploration to the personalities shaping the tech sector.