YouTube user Paranormal Crucible posted a video showing a "Buddha statue" on a Mars photo taken by one of NASA's space rovers. Scott C. Waring from UFO Sightings Daily confirmed the YouTuber's observation by saying it should be enough to convince the United Nations that there was once intelligent life on Mars and that NASA didn't want to share the truth about the Red Planet.
Now experts are saying that it could be a case of pareidolia, a psychological phenomenon in which the brain perceives a familiar pattern - mostly faces - even when none actually exists. On Mars, the phenomenon makes people see patterns and things in a barren orange-red planet through photos taken by a space rover.
Space producer Ian O'Neill from Discovery News explained that it's the same brain quirk that enables people to see Jesus' face on burnt patterns in toasts and floating rabbits in the clouds. While the American space agency makes no move to debunk baseless claims of alien life forms and discovered technology on Mars, a scientist made a comment about the supposed Gautama Buddha statue spotted on Mars.
"There is no group that would be (happier) to see such a thing than the 500 scientists around the world who work on this Curiosity rover. So far we haven't seen anything that is so obvious that it would be similar to what these claims are," said NASA scientist Ashwin Vasavada.
Vasavada's response is somehow connected to experts' claim that it is a mere case of pareidolia. He used the term 'apophenia', a psychological phenomenon when one sees a pattern or a link in random things.
The Internet is rife with conspiracy theories about the Mars explorations. A theory suggested that NASA receives funding to look for extraterrestrial life on the Red Planet. Conspiracy theorists believe that NASA is hiding what they have discovered from the general public for fear of losing their funding.
Whether it is a case of pareidolia or apophenia, scientists can't rule out the possibility of having some kind of microbial life that once lived (or maybe survived) on ancient Mars when water was theoretically more abundant.
