NASA orbiter finds 'Star Trek' Starfleet insignia on the surface of Mars

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recently completed its 60.000th trip around the Red Planet in May, and has been sending back incredible photos and valuable data since it was first launched in 2005. But it appears that someone may have already landed on Mars, and they left a calling card for the world to see, according to Futurism.com:

"But its on board HiRise high-resolution camera has never seen anything like this before: now it’s spotted a dune in the shape of the Starfleet insignia, from the fictional television show 'Star Trek.' Perhaps Captain Kirk got there before Elon Musk did after all." [caption id="attachment_40549" align="alignnone" width="640"] Photo via NASA/JPL[/caption]

What? Could it be? Has someone already boldly gone where no man has gone before? Not exactly:

This probably a coincidence caused by massive windstorms, lava, and other natural forces forming the Martian landscape — because the alternative is that one of those wacky “Star Trek” time travel plots actually happened, which would be awful.

The NASA has discovered a dune in the shape of Starfleet -the famous logo from Star Trek on Mars,the MRO HiRISE camera,said“Enterprising viewers will make the discovery that these features look conspicuously like a famous log,You'd be right, but it's only a coincidence pic.twitter.com/feZub0IpO0

— SURPRISING WORLD (@GowthamThota7) June 16, 2019

Ross Beyer, Principal Investigator with the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, explained the bizarre "Star Trek" figure the Mars Orbiter photographed:

"Long ago, there were large crescent-shaped (barchan) dunes that moved across this area, and at some point, there was an eruption. The lava flowed out over the plain and around the dunes, but not over them. The lava solidified, but these dunes still stuck up like islands. "Enterprising viewers will make the discovery that these features look conspicuously like a famous logo: and you’d be right, but it’s only a coincidence."

Despite that coincidence, actor William Shatner, who starred in the groundbreaking TV series, couldn't resist trolling the "Star Wars" franchise:

Hey @starwars! Will you hurry up your Rebel Scums? ? We beat you! ???? https://t.co/b53KxKlAlj

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) June 13, 2019

That drew a quick response from actor Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the "Star Wars" movies:

Looks like a boomerang to me. #Meh ? https://t.co/mpYAbBrDgw

— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) June 15, 2019

Looks like the real space race is just beginning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ibZL-JELMI Featured Image Via NASA/JPL