How’s this for a coincidence? Apparently a NASA satellite stumbled upon a formation on the surface of Mars that bears a striking resemblance to the Starfleet logo from the popular series Star Trek. Captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter MRO HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment), the picture shows what can only be described as a Starfleet insignia.
NASA explains the formation of such a shape in its blog post about the picture:
“These curious chevron shapes in southeast Hellas Planitia are the result of a complex story of dunes, lava, and wind.
Long ago, there were large crescent-shaped (barchan) dunes that moved across this area, and at some point, there was an eruption. The lava flowed out over the plain and around the dunes, but not over them. The lava solidified, but these dunes still stuck up like islands. However, they were still just dunes, and the wind continued to blow. Eventually, the sand piles that were the dunes migrated away, leaving these “footprints” in the lava plain. These are also called “dune casts” and record the presence of dunes that were surrounded by lava.
Enterprising viewers will make the discovery that these features look conspicuously like a famous logo: and you’d be right, but it’s only a coincidence.”
Of course, all of this is the makings for a perfect storm on the Internet as far as potential virality is concerned. And the picture did not fail to disappoint. Even the original Captain Kirk, William Shatner, weighed on in on the pic.
For those of you that are interested, NASA is making it available as a public wallpaper for your computer in really high resolution. You can download it by clicking here. That’s pretty cool if we don’t say so ourselves.
Are you a fan of Star Trek? Let us know your thoughts about this cool picture in the comments below.
