By Vania Raebel | October 4, 2019
The Martian Crustacean
This seemingly regular image was taken by the Mars Curiosity rover in July of 2015. What seems like a random photo taken from the planet Mars, however, generated social media buzz as a Facebook group zoomed in on what seems to be a crab-looking critter tucked in a rock. Do you see it? Some people even think it looks like H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu.
Despite all the attention this photo garnered, at the end of the day, it is not a crab (nor Cthulhu) that we are seeing. Rather, it is the fun interplay between light and shadow that, in this case, has formed a crustacean-looking effect. Sadly, it is nothing more than a rock being hit by light.
