NASA scientists have recorded quite unusual footprints on the red planet – a dashed line about 500 meters long. As explained in the space agency, it was not left by aliens, but a stone that rolled down a slope.
The trail was captured by a HiRISE high-resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on July 3, but was reported by NASA the other day. The stone is about six meters high and about 3.5 meters wide. It is because of this uneven shape that the boulder left a wavy trail, and not a straight line.
What happened reminds us that the same natural forces operate on Mars as on Earth. The gravity on the Red Planet is 62 percent lower than on Earth. That is, for example, a 100-kilogram earthling on Mars will weigh 38 kilograms.
How much the stone rolled down the slope weighed, the space agency experts did not specify. What made him budge is still unknown. It is worth noting that the resulting dashed line indicates that there were bulges on the boulder.
Previously, such cases have already occurred on the Red Planet. So, in June 2013, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a similar, but more direct trail, also left, probably by a stone. Then some experts suggested that in fact this is not a moving boulder, but some kind of Martian transport system. However, no convincing confirmation of this theory has yet been found.
