While NASA is planning to send the first humans to Mars, it seems they won’t be the first one; Starfleet may have gotten there first.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) while capturing some of the most detailed images of surface of the Red Planet spotted an unusual symbol on the surface of Mars — the iconic “Star Trek” Starfleet logo.
The MRO HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera team acquired this image on April 22, but they recently highlighted this discovery.
“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,” NASA and the University of Arizona said in a statement.
This dune feature is located in Hellas Planitia, in the southern hemisphere of Mars
Researchers working with the HiRISE instrument have been working for years studying the features they see in Mars images. According to them, this Starfleet logo was produced by random chance, the formation of this particular shape is the result of an interaction of dunes, lava and wind.
