Curiosity has found a "dog door" on Mars. Look at NASA pictures

Mastcam, the mast camera of the Mars rover Curiosity captured a strange formation while exploring Mount Aeolis (also

called Mount Sharp) on the red planet.The rock structure is covered in natural open cracks. One of them is a rectangular hole about 30 cm high and 40 cm wide. Because of its size, the rover team compared the crack to a dog door. NASA researchers note that such open cracks are common in bedrock on both Earth and Mars.

The main panorama shown below wasstitched together from 113 images taken from the left Mastcam lens. NASA notes that the image is processed to bring the color and brightness of the scene closer to the human eye in normal daytime conditions on Earth.

Commenting on interest in the discovery, the Curiosity teamexplained the desire to give natural education a clear meaning through pareidolia. This is a visual illusion that leads to the “discovery” of unreal images on real objects. 

"Of course it may look like a tinydoor, but it is actually a natural geological feature! It may just “look” like a door because your mind is trying to make sense of the unknown (called “pareidolia”),” the Curiosity team tweeted.

NASA notes that Curiosity is investigating this area on Mount Sharp, which may contain evidence of a major change in climatic conditions from wetter to drier in the past.

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