NASA Found a Perfect Square on Mars - What Is It Really? - video Dailymotion

Bright Side

NASA recently spotted something strange on Mars—a nearly perfect square-shaped formation on the planet’s surface! At first glance, it looks like something artificial, sparking wild theories about aliens and ancient civilizations. But scientists believe it's actually a natural geological formation, likely caused by cracks, erosion, or volcanic activity. Nature sometimes creates surprisingly geometric shapes, just like hexagonal basalt columns on Earth. While it's not proof of Martian life, it’s still an exciting discovery that makes us wonder what else is hiding on the Red Planet. Who knows? Maybe one day, we’ll find something even more mysterious!

Transcript

00:00There's a weird structure on Mars, a square, a near-perfect square standing alone in the endless red desert.

00:17And it looks too perfect, too precise to be anything but artificial.

00:22Nature is chaotic, and it rarely makes things look so deliberate.

00:26So the Internet took one look at it and lost its mind, as the Internet tends to do.

00:32The image spread like a virus on social media, igniting every conspiracy theory you can think of.

00:38Some were convinced it was proof that intelligent life had once tread upon the Martian sands.

00:44Well, let's dive in and sort it out.

00:47The image is real, and it's really old. The thing, not the picture.

00:52NASA's Mars orbiter camera snapped it in 2001, capturing a tiny slice of Martian terrain.

00:58And there sat the square.

01:01Now, is that evidence for intelligent life?

01:03Well, Mars is an empty world now, a rust-colored desert.

01:07But once, long ago, it may have been something else entirely.

01:16A planet filled with roaring rivers, vast oceans, and thick clouds rolling across the sky.

01:23Now, in a world like that, life, if it ever had a chance, could have taken root.

01:27And there's a possibility it did.

01:30Scientists think that life could have existed on Mars in a short period, from around 4.1 to 3 billion years ago.

01:38It could have started during the early era of Martian history, called the Noachian period,

01:43and lasted all the way to the late Hesperian period.

01:46Meanwhile, here on Earth, the first oceans were just forming.

01:50Life on our planet was just beginning, in the form of tiny bacteria in deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

01:56While Mars was already fully wet, on Earth, there were no plants or animals, just microscopic life trying to survive.

02:06So, Mars took the lead in the life game.

02:09It had a much thicker atmosphere, which could have trapped enough heat to keep water liquid.

02:13Valley networks, huge traces across the red landscape, show us the incredible story of rainfall, rivers, and lakes.

02:20Huge asteroids were still hitting Mars at the time, and they could have brought organic molecules with them.

02:27But, if that's true, what happened, and where did life go?

02:31A recent NASA study suggests that the answer is more complicated than we thought.

02:37Astronomers believe that something drastic happened to Mars, like boom!

02:40And its cozy climate was gone, its atmosphere thin.

02:46Without a strong magnetic field like Earth's to protect it, solar radiation stripped away the air, leaving Mars cold and dry.

02:54The ocean simply evaporated.

02:57Some of the water escaped into space, while the rest froze underground, or became locked in polar ice caps.

03:03Today, all that remains is a ghostly memory.

03:08Dry channels and salty mineral deposits.

03:13But, it looks like the transition wasn't sudden at all.

03:17It was slow and gradual.

03:18The planet was changing from wet and warm to cold and dry over millions of years.

03:24In fact, Mars kept its ocean even after the temperatures dropped to freezing.

03:28Some parts of Mars, especially the northern lowlands, might have remained wet for many, many centuries.

03:35Shouldn't the water freeze when it gets below 32 degrees Fahrenheit?

03:39Well, yeah.

03:40But, there are many reasons why this miracle happened, like Mars' thick atmosphere and warm water traveling through currents.

03:48And, during that time we mentioned before, from Noachian to the late Hesperian, life could have found a way.

03:58Microbes on Earth thrive in some of the harshest places.

04:02Beneath Antarctic ice, in deep sea vents, in toxic volcanic lakes.

04:06Hey, life doesn't care.

04:08So, these times in Martian history would be amazing for it.

04:12But, don't be mistaken, Mars was never a paradise.

04:15Even during its cozy times, it wasn't as lush and green as we might imagine.

04:21In its early days, Mars was something more extreme, something closer to the young Earth.

04:25During the Noachian period, it was warm, yet wet.

04:29Then, the climate shifted into the Hesperian period.

04:33Oceans were stretching across the northern lowlands.

04:36Temperatures dropped, and snow piled high, forming massive glaciers in the south, transforming the planet into an icy world.

04:44Finding microscopic life at that time is possible.

04:47But, an intelligent civilization?

04:49Eh, that's less likely.

04:50The square that went viral isn't evidence for intelligent life yet.

04:57And, here's why.

04:59First things first.

05:00People freak out because nature doesn't make straight lines.

05:04But, that's not really true.

05:05Actually, nature does it all the time.

05:08For example, here on Earth, we have the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

05:13A beautiful field of hexagonal basalt columns.

05:16These are completely natural.

05:18They're formed by volcanic activity.

05:20There's also the Devil's Tower in Wyoming.

05:23Hey, remember it from the Close Encounters movie in the 80s?

05:26That's a symmetrical rock formation, and it was created by erosion.

05:30However, if we looked at these things from space, they'd look artificial.

05:35So, what is the square?

05:37How about a fracture pattern in the rock or some terrain that's broken apart along straight lines due to stress?

05:44This happens on Earth all the time, when rock expands and contracts over time.

05:49And on Mars, the surface is just constantly battered by meteors, winds, and extreme temperature shifts.

05:56No wonder rock would get stressed.

05:59What happens here is another case of pareidolia.

06:02It's our brain's favorite thing.

06:04To spot patterns in something random.

06:06Hey, we evolved like this.

06:08So, sometimes, we might look at natural objects and see insane stuff.

06:13Faces on trees, animals in clouds, shapes, and so on.

06:17Besides, NASA has been photographing Mars for decades.

06:21We have high-resolution images of craters, mountains, valleys, riverbeds, hey, everything.

06:26Wouldn't an ancient civilization leave us, well, something better than some square-like rock?

06:33Even though things erode over time, we'd find more signs.

06:37Roads, foundations, artifacts, ruins, or at least something.

06:42Though, to be fair, we do see something.

06:44The square wouldn't be the first time Mars has played tricks on us.

06:48Over the years, we've spotted everything, from tunnels to carved faces.

06:52Even Bigfoot.

06:53Or this doorway, for example.

06:56A perfectly cut rectangular opening.

06:59That's what people saw when NASA's Curiosity rover sent back an image of the East Cliffs on Mount Sharp.

07:05It's almost like an ancient passage leading deep into the surface.

07:09You just need to go in and find some fantastic underground base.

07:15Well, NASA decided to take a closer look at it.

07:18It turns out, it's just 12 inches tall and 16 inches wide.

07:22The size of a dog door.

07:24That's because what we're looking at isn't a doorway, but an open fracture, a break in the rock that happens naturally over time.

07:32These kinds of cracks are extremely common, both on Earth and on Mars.

07:36They form when bedrock is stressed, expands, contracts, or gets eroded by wind and time.

07:42If you walk through a desert here on Earth, you'd see plenty of similar shapes.

07:47Canyons, cliffs, and even boulders have fractures that, from the right angle, might look like doorways.

07:54They're just not getting photographed by NASA.

07:56Also, the straightness of lines turns out to be just a trick of perspective.

08:02If you zoom out, you'll see that it's just one small break in a much bigger rock formation.

08:08Or the infamous Cydonia face.

08:10The photo was taken back in 1976 by NASA's Viking 1 orbiter when it was scanning Mars.

08:17In the region known as Cydonia, it captured what looked like a massive humanoid face, a rocky formation about 1.2 miles long.

08:26And this one face inspired books, documentaries, movies, and podcasts.

08:31But when NASA's Viking orbiters first took pictures of Cydonia, the cameras weren't super advanced.

08:40The image of the face had a low resolution and made the details fuzzy.

08:45NASA's later missions had far better cameras.

08:48And when Mars Global Surveyor revisited Cydonia in 2001, the truth was undeniable.

08:53The face was just a hill, a lumpy rock formation with ridges and depressions carved by wind and erosion.

09:00And in 2006, during another mission, a colored image with insanely high detail was made.

09:07No traces of face left there whatsoever.

09:10That's another pareidolia trick for you.

09:13Now, Mars has plenty of secrets left to uncover.

09:16But they will be related to its fascinating history, not some secret ancient civilization.

09:21The conclusion is, don't trust everything you see online.

09:25Sometimes, a mysterious rock is just a rock.

09:30As many

09:35as a movie

09:36the phenomenon

09:37as a comedy

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NASA Found a Perfect Square on Mars - What Is It Really?

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