NASA's Image of the Week Features the 'Cat Loaf Rock' on Mars Captured by the Perseverance Rover

There are no cats living on Mars, but NASA's Perseverance rover spotted a unique rock formation that resembles a cat chilling on the Martian surface in a loaf position.

Cat aficionados may be delighted with this cute image of a feline on the Red Planet. It is a rock that looks has cat-like ears, a b body like a loaf of bread where its legs are tucked under it, and a tail hidden away. CNet's Amanda Kooser calls this unique rock formation the "cat loaf rock" on Mars.

Cat Loaf Rock on Mars

On September 8, Perseverance rover's right Mastcam-Z snapped the cat loaf rock in Jezero Crater during its 551st sol on Mars. NASA has uploaded the captured images online for the public and featured them as the image of the week.

The angle of the photo combined highlights the way the shadows highlight the cat-like ears of the "head" of the rock and its long "body" that makes it look like a feline.

But on another angle and another time of Martian day, the rock just looks like any old lump of stone on Mars. It looks very different from the chubby-cheeked Persian cat chilling on the Martian surface, as shown in the image.

Experts said the phenomenon called pareidolia makes people spot familiar objects in random shapes, and it is quite rampant when it comes to Martian rocks. NASA's latest Mars rover landed on the Red Planet in early 2021 and has already spotted other formations, and the cat loaf rock is just one of them.

Likewise, the Curiosity rover also has its fair share of images that somehow looks like objects found here on Earth. Finding these rocks are fun and tend to play with humans' imaginations. As space agencies around the world continue to explore Mars to find proof of ancient or current life, it is expected that more images like these will be spotted in the future.

Other Oddly-Shaped Martian Rocks Found Throughout the Years

Scientists have been scouring the Red Planet for many decades, and it is only expected that they would spot some weird Martian formations. Here are some of these oddly-shaped Martian rocks that scientists have found throughout the years, according to CNet:

Face on Mars

In 1976, NASA's Viking 1 Orbiter zipped near Mars and snapped the iconic image of the Martian surface that shows what looks like a face. It is easy to spot the two eyes, a nose, and a mouth with a weird hairdo face-like formation at the upper center of the picture.

Then in 2001, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor also had a good look at the face on Mars to see if it was there. This time, it took a higher-resolution picture of the land formation and shows a blobbier, less stark formation that does not look like a face.

Mars Noodle

This unknown object was just photographed in July this year, showing a tangled object that looked like a string or a bunch of noodles. Perseverance rover took some time working through the possibilities of what it is and finally arrived at the conclusion that it could be a bit of a netting that had been blown across the Jezero Crater from the landing site of the rover.

Doorway to Mars

The most controversial, perhaps, was the image of what looks like a doorway on Mars. Despite speculations and conspiracy theories, NASA clarifies that the image at a cliffside snapped in May 2022 because of the angles of the light as well as the shadow and shapes made by that particular area of Gale Crater.

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