Cone you believe this?<\/p>\n
The mysterious party hat-shaped object on Mars which perplexed experts<\/a> has been identified as a naturally occurring rock shape, attributed to the Martian winds which have been known to produce other exotic, Earth-like shapes on the Red Planet, according to NASA \u2014 but one expert isn\u2019t buying it.<\/p>\n The smooth, metallic-looking cone piqued the interest of scientists, including Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who called on the space agency to use the Curiosity rover to review what appeared to be a small, smooth, and metallic cone on the Martian surface.<\/p>\n The small metallic looking cone object is naturally formed by Martian winds, the space agency claimed. Mars analyst notebook,NASA<\/p>\n NASA now claims the object is no big deal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen many, many Martian rocks that exhibit shapes that, from a particular angle, look like a more familiar shape,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The object is also substantially smaller than was estimated by some scientists, including Loeb, who had speculated the \u201cmysterious\u201d object to be roughly 20 centimeters and possibly \u201chuman-made debris.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The smooth cone is a mere 1 cm and was photographed by the rover from 13 feet away, the space agency stated.<\/p>\n Winds on Mars are far weaker than those on Earth \u2014 with recorded wind velocity measured maxing out at 100 mph, according to a 2025 study<\/a> from the University of Switzerland \u2014 but can result in surreal shapes.<\/p>\n Researchers located a smaller-than-a-penny \u201cflower\u201d on the Martian surface that looks like a coral reef, but was carved by wind.<\/p>\n Another stone looks like an old book with pages flaked by eons of time on the atmosphereless rock.<\/p>\n This coral-like object is smaller than a penny and also naturally formed on Mars, NASA claimed. NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/p>\n Some folks read into the shape of this object, claiming it looks like a book, though it\u2019s a natural formation. NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/p>\n A bear-ly believable Mars formation looks like a friendly drawing of the forest predator. NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/University of Arizona<\/p>\n The face of a bear appears on the face of the Red Planet when a formation is viewed from an eagle-eyed angle.<\/p>\n