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NASA’s Curiosity Rover Identifies a ‘Doorway’ to Mars

Vasavada said that the fracture is less than a foot high and that once the sand dunes had been compacted, they were then buried and unburied as the surface of Mars changed. The sandstone became buckled and fractured as a result of the pressure. He explained that the majority of fractures in this area are vertical. The particular fracture that forms the doorway shape is likely to have been formed in one of two ways.

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Vasavada stated that he believes there are either two vertical fractures where the middle has been removed or one vertical fracture in which the blocks have separated a bit.

Since it’s August 2012 landing in Gale Crater, the Curiosity rover is trawling Mars. Since then, the rover has covered 17.3 mi (27.84 km) in just 3,472 Martian days or ‘sols’. Curiosity takes photos with its panoramic Mastcam (mast+ camera) when it isn’t collecting soil and rock samples.

Another example of our natural tendency to recognize familiar forms in unfamiliar environments is this Curiosity photo. People have believed that they’ve seen many strange things on Mars in the past, such as a squirrel or a spoon.

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