Buzz
In the past 60 years of exploring space, humanity has gathered millions of images. Today, they come in faster than we can keep up with. As we browse through these extraordinary images, our minds often trick us into seeing shapes we recognize. This phenomenon is known as pareidolia – the human tendency to identify familiar forms in the natural world. It’s something we do as children, and even as adults, when we spot shapes in clouds.
Long ago, humans gazed at the stars and used pareidolia to form the constellations we know today. With the help of spacecraft, robots, and telescopes, our understanding of what lies in the cosmos has expanded. Yet, pareidolia remains a part of our experience. In a previous list, we showcased 10 remarkable examples. Here are 10 more amazing extraterrestrial images that have challenged our perception.
10. The Space Invader Galaxy
Three billion light-years away from Earth lies a galaxy cluster called Abell 68. In a Hubble Space Telescope image of this cluster, we observe a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. This occurs when light is bent by the enormous gravitational pull of a nearby galaxy cluster, distorting the light as though viewed through a powerful lens. In this particular case, the gravitational lensing has twisted one of the galaxies in Abell 62, making it resemble an 8-bit 'Space Invaders' character. The distortion is so intense that the same galaxy appears twice in the image. Look closely at the sideways spiral just below and to the left of the Space Invader galaxy, around 7 o’clock. That’s the same galaxy.
9. Is That a Volcano, or Is Mars Just Excited to See Us?
Captured with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this image is an anaglyph. It was created by merging a stereo pair of photos to produce a 3-D view. If you have a pair of 3-D glasses nearby and want to explore more fascinating anaglyph images from Mars, check them out here.
This specific anaglyph reveals a small Martian volcano named East Mareotis Tholus. The volcano itself isn’t visible here, as it has been covered by windblown sand. However, the trench-like pit where lava once flowed from the volcano's peak is clearly visible, stretching southwest toward an impact crater. The combination of the pit and crater creates a striking and unique image.
8. Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite
Mercury has long been overlooked in the realm of planetary exploration. However, everything changed in 2011 when NASA's MESSENGER became the first spacecraft to orbit the planet. MESSENGER has transmitted over 200,000 images back to Earth, but perhaps none hold more potential for pareidolia than this one, which seems to show where Boba Fett might have temporarily kept Han Solo before delivering him to Jabba the Hutt.
Solo was allegedly discovered hiding in Mercury's largest basin, known as the Caloris Basin, which gets its name from the Latin word for 'heat.' Surprisingly, although NASA pointed out the striking resemblance, they don't believe the image actually shows the Star Wars character. Scientists think this formation could be made up of some of the original material from the area, predating the debris impact that created the basin.
7. Giant Martian Bacteria
The interiors of impact craters on Mars have yielded some of the most captivating images captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. You might mistake this image for giant bacteria crawling across the Martian surface, as the dark-colored dunes that scatter Proctor Crater in Mars' southern highlands resemble exactly that. However, rest assured, these shapes are actually two distinct types of sand dunes. The smaller, lighter dunes stand in sharp contrast to the towering dark sand mounds. Despite the materials being of a similar age, the darker dunes are the newer formations. Scientists believe the dark mounds are shaped by seasonal winds that push and shift the Martian sand. These dunes, driven by the winds, actually shift across the crater floor.
6. The Glowing Skull
Fans of classic 1960s television may recognize the X-ray binary star, Circinus X-1, as resembling the Ebonites from the episode 'Nightmare' of the iconic science fiction series The Outer Limits. Fortunately, Circinus X-1 isn’t a race of aliens used by the US military to test what it takes to break soldiers. As the youngest X-ray binary discovered, it remains a truly rare and unique object.
Binary systems, as the name suggests, consist of two stars orbiting around a shared center of mass. In an X-ray binary, either a dense neutron star or a black hole is bound in orbit with a regular star, similar to our Sun. Thankfully, our Sun is not part of an X-ray binary. As the neutron star or black hole orbits its companion star, it behaves like a cosmic vampire, draining matter from the star and producing intense X-rays in the process. These X-rays are exactly what the Chandra X-ray Observatory seeks to detect.
Using Chandra, astronomers were able to determine the age of Circinus X-1. Normally, this would be nearly impossible. The system's neutron star emits such intense X-rays that they overwhelm the instruments, similar to how a bright flashlight would blind you if pointed directly at your face. However, when the 'flashlight' dimmed, it became possible to observe the person holding it. This gave astronomers a brief moment to observe how the remnants of the supernova that created the neutron star interacted with the surrounding interstellar gas. This not only allowed them to accurately age Circinus X-1 (it’s less than 4,600 years old), but also provided this extraordinary image, resembling a glowing skull in space.
5. Brain Terrain
In the satirical film Starship Troopers, the main goal for the increasingly traumatized heroes was to find and capture the Brain Bug—a super-intelligent enemy creature that resembled a bug with a massive brain. Could Mars also have its own version of a brain bug? This might explain the strange and little-understood geological feature known as brain terrain.
This phenomenon, which can span up to a kilometer (0.6 mi) in diameter, remains a mystery to scientists. However, their best hypothesis is that the brain-like substance found within this impact crater is the result of Martian debris—such as sand, rock, or other materials—sitting on top of an ice glacier. Researchers have even identified two distinct types of 'cells' that make up the brain terrain: open cells (areas with convex boundaries and flat-floored depressions) and closed cells (domed mounds approximately 20 meters (67 ft) wide, with noticeable surface grooves).
4. The Venus Tick
Astronomers face a major challenge when it comes to observing Venus’ surface, as its thick atmosphere completely blocks the view. However, radar waves can penetrate through the clouds, offering us a glimpse of what the planet might look like. In 1989, the United States launched the Magellan spacecraft, named after the explorer who was the first to sail around the world. Equipped with powerful radar technology, Magellan spent several years mapping 98 percent of Venus’ surface, revealing an array of volcanoes, many of which were unlike anything geologists had ever encountered. One particularly strange variety of volcanoes became known as “ticks,” due to their unusual appearance. These volcanoes have flat, dome-shaped tops, with lava seemingly spreading out from all sides. The exact origin of their “legs” is still unclear, but one possibility is that these features are not actually lava flows, but rather avalanches or fractures along the volcano’s sides. Magellan discovered more than 50 tick volcanoes on Venus.
3. The Martian Jelly Donut
While the Mars rovers are no strangers to sending back extraordinary images, nothing could have prepared scientists for the peculiar sight of the 'jelly donut.'
The story began in December 2013, when the Discovery rover captured an image of a rocky area near a feature that NASA had named “Pinnacle Island.” About 12 days later, the rover took a second image of the same spot, which made headlines around the world. The reason for the media frenzy was the appearance of a strange object that hadn't been seen in the first photo. NASA quickly gave it the name “jelly donut” due to its white outer rim and red, jelly-like interior. However, no one could offer a definitive explanation for how the object appeared. Did the jelly donut just appear out of nowhere? Was it ejected into view by a nearby meteor? Or had the rover somehow placed it there itself?
The scientists quickly dismissed the idea that Martians had moved the rock, although a very important expert advised NASA to consider all possibilities, including the existence of elusive aliens. While a meteor impact was unlikely to have placed the rock in view, it could not be entirely ruled out. After a few weeks of uncertainty, NASA concluded that the jelly donut had been relocated by the Discovery rover itself. Apparently, the rover's wheel had dislodged a rock from slightly uphill, and as the wheel rotated, it carried the rock into the camera’s line of sight. The simple conclusion that “they drove over it” dashed any hopes of discovering donut-based life. You can click here to hear the principal mission scientist explain the mystery behind the jelly donut.
2. The Doomsday Machine
But don't assume the dunes are the only example of space pareidolia inspired by Star Trek. Check out the Doomsday Machine.
Also known as “the space caterpillar” for its resemblance to the insect, to a sci-fi enthusiast, this is unmistakably the Doomsday Machine from the Star Trek episode of the same name. A blend of Cold War allegory and a space-faring adaptation of Moby Dick, the Doomsday Machine was a weapon that traversed the galaxy, destroying and consuming entire planets and star systems. Designed never to be activated (much like the H-bomb), it was a deterrent to war that somehow escaped its creators. Much like Captain Ahab's obsession with the white whale, a deranged space captain became fixated on eliminating it.
In the TV series, the Doomsday Machine prop was just a wind sock painted metallic silver. However, it bears a striking resemblance to IRAS 20324+4057, a protostar accumulating material to kickstart its formation. This image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in partnership with ground-based observatories in 2006. It depicts material being blasted away (from right to left) by radiation emitted from the tightly packed stars that make up Cygnus OB2. The expelled matter is the blue tail trailing the fiery red mouth of the Doomsday Machine.
1. The Starfleet Emblem On Mars
It seems that 1960s science fiction television had an almost prophetic ability to foretell the incredible space imagery we've gathered over the past decade. When Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek first premiered in 1966, could he have imagined that, 47 years later, a spacecraft orbiting Mars would transmit a photograph eerily reminiscent of his Star Fleet emblem? It's possible—his series predicted countless advances that are now commonplace.
Found within a massive impact crater, the formations appear similar to the barchan dunes found on Earth. Scientists believe they were formed in much the same way, as a result of the interaction between Martian winds and the planet's terrain. The dunes' dark hue comes from the presence of Martian balsatic rock. They also bear a striking resemblance to a flock of birds soaring across the cratered surface.
