NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spots SECOND Star Trek logo on Red Planet

The NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is searching for evidence that water persisted on the Red Planet’s surface. While other Mars missions indicated water once flowed across its now barren surface, it remains a mystery whether H2O was ever around long enough to provide a habitat for alien life. But NASA’s probe has now spotted something totally unexpected from above – an mysterious Star Trek logo marking on Mars. NASA’s orbiting craft has now captured another image of a strange chevron on the Martian surface eerily resembling the Star Trek Starfleet symbol.

And the uncanny similarity has left many commentators questioning how it ended-up on Mars.

The shapes were found in the southeast Hellas Planitia region of Mars and were forged by wind, lava and dunes.

At some distant point in Martian history, crescent-shaped dunes were in the area.

An eruption sent lava pewing out, outlining the dunes but not covering them.

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Then as the lava cooled, the dunes pointed up like islands.

But they were still dunes, so the brutal Martian wind could move them, making the dunes migrated.

Then as the lava cooled, the dunes pointed up like islands.

But they were still dunes, so the brutal Martian wind could move them, making the dunes migrated.

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Their footprints, dubbed “dune casts,” were left behind in the lava field.

So, no, it’s not an alien habitat or Starfleet base – unless the United Federation of Planets has some explaining to do.

The University of Arizona, which manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, said: “Enterprising viewers will make the discovery that these features look conspicuously like a famous logo.

“You would be right, but it is only a coincidence.”

And this is not the first time the Mars orbit spotted such Star Trek logo shapes.

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Researchers last year found hundreds of crescent-shaped depressions on the surface of the Red Planet.

These pits likely used to be sand dunes, with some the size of the US Capitol building.

The orbiter has been sending back high-resolution imagery for 13 years, well past its design lifetime.

It serves as a vital communications relay for NASA’s Curiosity rover and InSight lander and is expected to support the Mars 2020 rover mission when that craft lands on the Red Planet.

source: express.co.uk