Shock images: Spaceship captures... tree stumps on another planet?

The new image captured by the ExoMars spacecraft is absolutely stunning because what is in the image is nothing more than a giant root, with clearly visible growth rings.

But very detailed, it is not the image of alien life as we expected, according to Live Science.

The image was captured by the ExoMars Trace Gas Obiter's CaSSIS state-of-the-art camera system, a spacecraft orbiting Mars. This is a joint mission between ESA (European Space Agency) and Roscosmos (Russian Space Agency).

A log crater on Mars when viewed from above.

The newly revealed image was taken in the northern plains of Acidalia Planitia. Although viewed from above, it completely resembles an alien stump with clear growth rings like the Earth's tree, but is actually just an ice-rich impact crater.

Still, it's still a treasure trove for ESA and Roscosmos researchers. These "growth rings", while not true growth rings, have nothing to do with the age of the structure, but reveal events that happened on Mars, because the rings are water-rich sediments. .

The analysis of these deposits not only reveals the chemical composition of the Martian environment at times, but the way the sediments were deposited also reveals the planet's tilt and its axis of rotation then.

The planet's weather in each period is also marked by the way in which the material expands or contracts, creating ring-shaped ridges in the crater that deeply reflect the changing environment of the planet.