Space & Astronomy

NASA's Mars rover photographs rock shaped like an avocado

By T.K. Randall
September 17, 2023

Image Credit: Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech From doors and giant crabs to the faces of President Obama and Beaker from The Muppets - there have certainly been a lot of strange sightings on the surface of Mars over the years.

With its barren landscape strewn with randomly shaped boulders, rocky outcrops and other geological features, it's perhaps not surprising that Mars is a prime location to see examples of pareidolia - the human brain's natural tendency to see meaningful shapes in otherwise abstract patterns.

This latest example, which was snapped on September 8th by the Mastcam-Z camera aboard NASA's Perseverance rover, shows a rock that happens to look like an avocado that has been cut in half.The rounded interior part of the rock resembles the stone inside the fruit, while a second stone next to it on the ground looks a bit like the second half of the avocado facing down.

The unusual find is the latest in a string of discoveries made by NASA's flagship rover in Jezero Crater where it continues its mission to seek out signs that life may have once existed on the Red Planet.

There were probably never any avocado trees on Mars, though.

Source: IFL Science

Tags: Mars