Nasa researchers pubblished on their official site a new collection of Martian images, taken by the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera installed on board the multi-purpose automatic station Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, engaged in the study of Mars.

A crater in the shape of Pac-Man

As soon as the images appeared on the web, ufologists and fans of space exploration immediately focused their attention on one of them, the one you see in the picture and that was called the Barchan Pac-Man, because of the curious resemblance to the famous videogame.

It is in fact a Barchan dune which partly fills a small impact crater and that because of the light-shadow play looks like a circle from which a segment has been cut. Nasa scientists state that the outer edge of the crater, crooked, is responsible for this configuration and that in the next tens of thousands of years the sand will be swept away by the crater.

Was there an intelligent life on Mars?

Some ufologists and conspiracists, however, believe that the image can be the umpteenth proof of the presence on Mars of intelligent life. According to them it would not be a crater, but something very different, like the entrance to the aliens base or even an alien aircraft. The symmetrical shadow would be caused by a camouflage.

For the skeptics it would instead be just pareidolia, as for the Cydonia face. For now it is not possible to resolve the dispute once and for all, since Mars will not be reached by any man for several years and when even a human crew will land on the planet, will have numerous areas to investigate to check if those photographed by the probes and the rovers are only natural formations or there actually exist traces of an ancient Martian civilization.