A bear's face, a spoon, and thousands of black spiders. Top 10 strange things on Mars that have confused scientists

Ever since NASA and other space agencies began exploring the surface of the Red Planet using robotic technology, images of strange objects and formations have continued to fuel hopes, fears, and curiosity among skywatchers. Some of the objects found on Mars look like they don't belong to the dead planet at all.

Among the top 10 strange things on Mars are a bear's face, a smiley face, a creepy face, an angel, stone candy, thousands of black spiders, and a floating spoon. The origin of some of these findings has even confused scientists, LiveScience writes.

Creepy "face"

One of the earliest Martian rock formations to attract public interest was an eerie "face" spotted by NASA's Viking 1 satellite in 1976. Further observations by later spacecraft showed that the face was visible only at certain angles and under certain lighting conditions. That is, the human appearance of the Martian mound was just a trick of light and shadow.

The funny face of the "bear"

An image released in January 2023 by the University of Arizona (UA) shows the face of a huge Martian teddy bear with two beady eyes, a button nose, and an upside-down mouth, smiling at the camera of NASA's Mars rover. Scientists suggest that the pleasantly plump formation is probably a broken hill in the center of an ancient crater.

Thousands of black "spiders"

Every spring, thousands of black "spiders" emerge from hibernation near the south pole of Mars. However, scientists emphasize that these are not real spiders. This seasonal phenomenon is the result of the sublimation of ice from carbon dioxide or its transformation into gas as the weather warms up.

In simple terms, the released gas breaks through the layers of surface ice, carrying with it dark dust that splashes across the ground in rocky patterns ranging in size from 45 meters to 1 kilometer, as seen in the image.

Smiley face on Mars

ESA's ExoMars spacecraft has captured an infrared image of the surface of Mars, where a smiling face can be seen. The smiley face is actually the remnants of an ancient lake outlined by chloride salt deposits and dotted with two eyes of a meteorite crater, scientists explain.

The floating spoon

In 2015, NASA's Curiosity rover spotted what looked like a wooden spoon flying in the air, with a shadow underneath. Scientists say it's just an optical illusion. The spoon is just a stone, and the handle protrudes from a larger formation, allowing the rounded tip of the spoon to float above the ground below, casting a clear shadow below it.

"Angel" and heart

The South Pole of Mars is usually covered by a huge ice cap, but when the ice melts in warm weather, patterns appear in the ancient red-colored sediment, researchers say. In this image taken by ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, an angel and heart-shaped pattern can be seen side by side. Both of these structures are the result of impact craters from meteorites that scraped away the dusty topsoil of Mars to reveal the darker sediment beneath.

Stone "candies"

In May 2024, NASA's Curiosity rover ran over a small rock on its way, inadvertently crushing it. The boulder contained a storehouse of rare minerals, including some that had never been found on the Red Planet before. The yellowish crystals resembling candy consist of pure elemental sulfur.

The ghost of Mars

In an image taken by NASA's Mars rover Perseverance in 2023, a white figure towers over the Martian horizon against a dark rocky background. In fact, it is a Martian dust devil, a vortex that is taller than a normal tornado on Earth and five times taller than the Empire State Building, according to NASA. Dust devils, which form when swirls of warm air meet columns of cool air, are extremely common on Mars. A 2018 study estimated that their number could reach 145 million per day.

UFO debris

In 2022, NASA spotted something on Mars that looked like the wreckage of an "alien" craft. In this case, the "aliens" were earthlings. After all, this debris is a piece of a parachute and the back of a helicopter, a saucer-like cover that helped slow the descent of a robotic craft as it fell to the Red Planet.

Swirling patterns

The strange patterns carved into the surface of the Martian region of Nili Fossa are mineral deposits containing large amounts of olivine, a mineral that is normally found only deep below the surface of Mars. Scientists still do not understand how so much olivine-rich rock reached the planet's surface.

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