By Tim Binnall
A photo recently snapped by NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover shows a pair of odd 'spikes' extending out of the surface of the Red Planet. The weird rock formations were reportedly photographed by the exploratory space vehicle as it was roaming around the Gale Crater on May 17th. The image was subsequently shared on social media by the SETI Institute, who marveled at the wondrous Martian find and, getting a jump on anomaly hunters who might offer a more fantastic explanation for the peculiar geology, offered a scientific explanation for the 'alien' sight.
"The spikes are most likely the cemented fillings of ancient fractures in a sedimentary rock," they explained, "the rest of the rock was made of softer material and was eroded away." Similar formations can be found here on Earth, where they are known as a hoodoo among a variety of other colorful names like fairy chimneys. Despite SETI's seemingly correct identification of the spires, more imaginative individuals on social media offered their own take on the oddities, largely suggesting that they were some kind of petrified organic matter from, presumably, a time when life once thrived on the Red Planet.