What’s Up With That Square Structure on Mars

What's up with the square structure discovered on Mars? Neil deGrasse Tyson breaks down the Mars Global Surveyor, the images we have of Mars, and our urge to blame things on aliens.

Timestamps:
00:00 - What's Up With The Mars Square?
00:10 - The Mars Global Surveyor
2:50 - Pareidolia & Other Things We’ve Spotted
6:30 - “IT’S ALIENS!”

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About StarTalk:
Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!

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[StarTalk]

What do you believe is a tell tale sign of intelligent life beyond planet Earth? Which exoplanet do you think may harbor that intelligent life?

[KuraKekoa]

It’s a Dollar General. They’re frickin everywhere, man.

[LastDays]

Let’s keep searching for intelligent life on Earth first.

[gipadonimus]

I was kind of expecting a Squarespace sponsorship

[peternaveen]

I enjoy these solo sessions by Neil... it avoids unwanted distractions..!

[Danjoker.]

What if Neil is an Alien, and he's just trying to cover this up??? 👽

[JB-tpln]

I heard an archaeologist say that if they saw that structure on a LIDAR map of the jungles of South America, they would immediately think it was man-made. 'Proves nothing, but, it is interesting.

[DustySpencer-jyds]

Even in the original image you can still see 3 right angles perfectly in my opinion

[silverjack]

"I don't have the luxury of being wrong 99.999 percent of the time" has to be one of the best things I've ever heard another person say.

[stephenbenner]

I have a popcorn ceiling, and sometimes when I’m lying in bed I look up and see different things, especially faces in the randomness.

[SMALLTOWNREACTIONS]

Dr. Tyson I just want to say that you're videos always keep me captivated and even though I don't understand the math or the scientific equations, I always take away some new understanding. I'm 39 and always learning new things. Thank you for continuing to provide us with videos.

[unhappyface-em]

Neil, is there any chance of there being another "Cosmos" series? Surely, I cannot be the only one who wants such a thing to happen.

[greendragonreprised]

Surely the constellations were one of the earliest examples of pareidolia, people looking up and seeing patterns, even though we know now that stars that appear close together in our line of sight may be nowhere near each other.

[AshE]

Absolutely love the Mitch Headburg joke. I never heard that one. That joke is his style of humor in a nut shell. Love it

[dmaz]

Sure but even the NON enhanced image clearly shows a rectangle. Most people aren't saying "aliens"... they are saying, "that's interesting and we should investigate further"

[jmcd]

"I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault. Bigfoot is blurry, and that's extra scary to me. There's a large out of focus monster roaming the countryside" - Mitch Hedberg

[geolukens]

Geologist here. Right angles are very common in naturally occurring fracture systems. The photos shown at 2:23 to 2:25 are bedrock fractures exposed at Earth’s surface and just happen to be near water. Their geometric shape was not carved by water - the water is eroding into fractured bedrock. It is entirely unsurprising that Mars would also have right-angle fractures.

[briandoile]

RIP Mac Tonnies, he was a pioneer in this field. He taught me about Cydonia in the early 90's. You are remembered fondly.

[imyzu]

Oh my, that 'Urge to Believe' comment initially caught me off guard for a split second. Humans have imagination too; coupled with an urge to believe we get all kinds of insanity.

[magicsinglez]

This was fun. A couple of times Neil didn’t explain, like, ‘the land area of Mars = the land are off earth. I would have preferred for it to be spelled out but that might seem condescending.