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

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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!  Credit: KSC-09-S-00026: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/ksc_030609_kep_launch Mars Report Odyssey: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/JPL-20231122-MARSODf-0001-Mars%20Report%20Odyssey%20November%202023  Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/JPL-20210222-M2020f-0001-Perseverance%20Rover%E2%80%99s%20Descent%20and%20Touchdown%20on%20Mars Peseverance Mission Overview: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/JPL-20200727-M2020f-0003-Peseverance%20Mission%20Overview Mars' Ancient Ocean: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/GSFC_20150305_Mars_m11796_Ocean Firing Room 1 Simulations for Artemis I: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/KSC-20200203-MH-GEB01_0001-Firing_Room_1_Sims_For_Atermis_1-3241077 How Water May Have Affected Volcanoes on Mars: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/GSFC_20180608_Tonga_m12932_Volcanoes Peseverance Mission Overview: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/JPL-20200727-M2020f-0003-Peseverance%20Mission%20Overview IceBridge images of crack: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/GSFC_20161208_IceBridge_m12449_IceBridge Mars Evolution from Wet to Dry: By NASA, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13016/ Visualizations of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai: By NASA, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4635/ Ingenuity Third Flight MastcamZ Video: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/JPL-20210425-TECHf-0001-Ingenuity%20Third%20Flight%20MastcamZ%20Video Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Flight: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/JPL-20230406-TECHf-0001-Ingenuity%20Flight%20Update%20Media%20Reel%201080 Happy Birthday, Curiosity: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/GSFC_20130805_HappyBirthday_m11331_Curiosity The Cydonia 'D&M Pyramid' Landform: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA04745 Perseverance Explores the Jezero Crater Delta: By NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/JPL-20220906-Perseverance_Explores_Jezero_Crater_Delta_UHD Animation is created by Bright Side. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00There's a weird structure on Mars. A square. A near-perfect square standing alone in the

00:16endless red desert. And it looks too perfect, too precise to be anything but artificial.

00:23Nature is chaotic, and it rarely makes things look so deliberate. So the Internet took one

00:28look at it and lost its mind, as the Internet tends to do. The image spread like a virus

00:34on social media, igniting every conspiracy theory you can think of. Some were convinced

00:39it was proof that intelligent life had once tread upon the Martian sands. Let's dive

00:45in and sort it out.

00:48The image is real, and it's really old. The thing, not the picture. NASA's Mars

00:53Orbiter camera snapped it in 2001, capturing a tiny slice of Martian terrain. And there

00:59sat the square. Now is that evidence for intelligent life? Well, Mars is an empty world now, a

01:06rust-colored desert. But once, long ago, it may have been something else entirely. A planet

01:17filled with roaring rivers, vast oceans, and thick clouds rolling across the sky. Now,

01:23in a world like that, life, if it ever had a chance, could've taken root. And there's

01:28a possibility it did. Scientists think that life could've existed on Mars in a short

01:33period from around 4.1 to 3 billion years ago. It could've started during the early

01:39era of Martian history, called the Noachian period, and lasted all the way to the late

01:45Hesperian period. Meanwhile, here on Earth, the first oceans were just forming. Life on

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

01:55vents. While Mars was already fully wet, on Earth, there were no plants or animals, just

02:01microscopic life trying to survive. So, Mars took the lead in the life game. It

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

02:14Valley networks, huge traces across the red landscape, show us the incredible story of

02:19rainfall, rivers, and lakes. Huge asteroids were still hitting Mars at the time, and

02:24they could've brought organic molecules with them. But if that's true, what happened,

02:29and where did life go? A recent NASA study suggests that the answer is more complicated

02:35than we thought. Astronomers believe that something drastic happened to Mars, like boom,

02:43and its cozy climate was gone, its atmosphere thin, without a strong magnetic field like

02:48Earth's to protect it, solar radiation stripped away the air, leaving Mars cold and dry. The

02:55ocean simply evaporated. Some of the water escaped into space, while the rest froze underground,

03:01or became locked in polar ice caps. Today, all that remains is a ghostly memory.

03:08Dry channels and salty mineral deposits. But it looks like the transition wasn't sudden

03:16at all. It was slow and gradual. The planet was changing from wet and warm to cold and

03:21dry over millions of years. In fact, Mars kept its ocean even after the temperatures

03:28dropped to freezing. Some parts of Mars, especially the northern lowlands, might have remained

03:33wet for many, many centuries. Shouldn't the water freeze when it gets below 32 degrees

03:38Fahrenheit? Well, yeah. But there are many reasons why this miracle happened, like Mars's

03:44thick atmosphere and warm water traveling through currents. And during that time we

03:49mentioned before, from Noachian to the late Hesperian, life could've found a way.

03:59Microbes on Earth thrive in some of the harshest places – beneath Antarctic ice, in deep

04:04sea vents, in toxic volcanic lakes. Hey, life doesn't care! So, these times in Martian

04:09history would be amazing for it. But don't be mistaken – Mars was never a paradise.

04:16Even during its cozy times, it wasn't as lush and green as we might imagine. In its

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

04:26the Noachian period, it was warm yet wet. Then, the climate shifted into the Hesperian

04:32period. Oceans were stretching across the northern lowlands. Temperatures dropped, and

04:37snow piled high, forming massive glaciers in the south, transforming the planet into

04:42an icy world. Finding microscopic life at that time is possible, but an intelligent

04:48civilization? Eh, that's less likely.

04:54The square that went viral isn't evidence for intelligent life yet. And here's why.

04:59First things first, people freak out because nature doesn't make straight lines. But

05:04that's not really true. Actually, nature does it all the time. For example, here on

05:10Earth, we have the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, a beautiful field of hexagonal basalt

05:15columns. These are completely natural. They're formed by volcanic activity.

05:20There's also the Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Hey, remember it from the Close Encounters

05:25movie in the 80s? That'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.

05:36So what is the square? How about a fracture pattern in a rock or some terrain that's

05:41broken apart along straight lines due to stress? This happens on Earth all the time, when rock

05:47expands and contracts over time. And on Mars, the surface is just constantly battered by

05:53meteors, winds, and extreme temperature shifts. No wonder rock would get stressed.

05:59What happens here is another case of pareidolia. It's our brain's favorite thing to spot

06:04patterns in something random. Hey, we evolved like this. So, sometimes, we might look at

06:10natural objects and see insane stuff – faces on trees, animals in clouds, shapes, and so

06:16on. Besides, NASA has been photographing Mars

06:20for decades. We have high-resolution images of craters, mountains, valleys, riverbeds

06:25– hey, everything. Wouldn't an ancient civilization leave us, well, something better

06:31than some square-like rock? Even though things erode over time, we'd find more signs, roads,

06:38foundations, artifacts, ruins, or at least something.

06:41Though, to be fair, we do see something. The square wouldn't be the first time Mars has

06:47played tricks on us. Over the years, we've spotted everything, from tunnels to carved

06:52faces. Even Bigfoot. Or this doorway, for example. A perfectly cut rectangular opening.

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

07:04on Mount Sharp. It's almost like an ancient passage leading deep into the surface. You

07:10just need to go in and find some fantastic underground base.

07:14Well, NASA decided to take a closer look at it. It turns out, it's just 12 inches tall

07:21and 16 inches wide – the size of a dog door. That's because what we're looking

07:26at isn't a doorway, but an open fracture – a break in the rock that happens naturally

07:31over time. These kinds of cracks are extremely common both on Earth and on Mars. They form

07:37when bedrock is stressed, expands, contracts, or gets eroded by wind and time.

07:43If you walked through a desert here on Earth, you'd see plenty of similar shapes. Canyons,

07:48cliffs, and even boulders have fractures that, from the right angle, might look like

07:53doorways. They're just not getting photographed by NASA.

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

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

08:08Or the infamous Cydonia face. The photo was taken back in 1976 by NASA's Viking 1 orbiter

08:15when it was scanning Mars. In the region known as Cydonia, it captured what looked like a

08:21massive humanoid face – a rocky formation about 1.2 miles long. And this one face inspired

08:28books, documentaries, movies, and podcasts. But when NASA's Viking orbiters first took

08:36pictures of Cydonia, the cameras weren't super advanced. The image of the face had

08:41a low resolution and made the details fuzzy. NASA's later missions had far better cameras,

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

08:55was just a hill – a lumpy rock formation with ridges and depressions carved by wind

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

09:06was made. No traces of face left there whatsoever. That's another pareidolia trick for you.

09:14Mars has plenty of secrets left to uncover. But they will be related to its fascinating

09:18history, not some secret ancient civilization. The conclusion is, don't trust everything

09:24you see online. Sometimes, a mysterious rock is just a rock.

09:32That's it for today! So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like

09:37and share it with your friends. Or if you want more, just click on these videos and

09:40stay on the Bright Side!

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

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