Scientists take a closer look at available images

Apr 12, 2012 13:17 GMT  ·  By

A structure discovered on the Red Planet, and believed to be a monolith left behind by alien civilizations, may in fact be nothing more than a rectangular boulder, scientists from the Arizona State University (ASU) say.

The rock was first discovered several years ago, by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's (MRO) High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument. The camera has a resolution of about 1 foot (30 centimeters) per pixel, which is remarkably precise, considering it’s around another planet.

One of the things that captured the imagination of the general public was that the structure they perceived to be a monolith bears a striking resemblance to stones left behind by aliens in the classic movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Weirdly, interest in this object appears to peak and wane once every few years. Unfortunately for those who try to use it as evidence that alien lifeforms exist, the scientific explanation for the structure is always the same.

ASU scientist Jonathon Hill is a research technician at the university's Mars Space Flight Facility, and is part of a team that processes data collected by a variety of spacecraft that investigated, or investigate, our neighboring planet, Space reports.

His professional opinion is that the Martian monolith is nothing more than a roughly rectangular boulder. The structure may look like a monolith because HiRISE is located around 180 miles (300 kilometers) above the surface of the Red Planet.

“When your resolution is too low to fully resolve an object, it tends to look rectangular because the pixels in the image are squares. Any curve will look like a series of straight lines if you reduce your resolution enough,” Hill explained, as quoted by Space.

He adds that people who call the object a monolith aren't wrong in using the term. However, they do attribute a certain connotation to it that simply isn't true. In Latin, the word monolith means “one stone,” or “single stone.”

The location of the stone, at the bottom of a cliff, also rules out an intelligent race of builders. “If I was going to build a monolith somewhere, that's the last place I would put it! The debris falling from the cliff would cover it up pretty quickly, on geologic timescales,” Hill concluded.