A new picture taken on Mars has got people talking. The image, taken by space agency NASA’s Curiosity Rover on the Red Planet, appears to show what looks like a doorway

The picture was taken by Curiosity’s mast camera on May 7. NASA hasn’t commented on the apparent door – but lots of people have been talking about it online.

One social media user described the scene as “a formation on Mars which appears to be a portal and a wall nearby that looks artificial”, reports the Daily Record. Someone else said: “Swear to God, there’s at least five Martians camouflaged in there.”

But others aren’t so sure. One Reddit user commented: “It’s obviously not a little door, it’s just a flat piece of broken rock.”

The image was taken at a geological feature known as Greenheugh Pediment, by the Mast Camera on board Curiosity, on 7 May 2022.

In the years that we’ve had access to close-ups of Mars from landers and orbiters, we’ve been treated to some truly weird and wonderful snapshots of the red planet: craters filled with ice, strange chevron-shaped rock formations, hollowed-out mountains and plenty more.

In terms of spooky discoveries in space that appear to resemble ‘alien’ structures, it’s important we don’t get too carried away with what grainy images can sometimes suggest.

You may remember the strange, cube-shaped object spotted on the Moon by China’s Yutu 2 rover last year. After further investigation, it turns out that the ‘alien hut’ was simply another rock – with tricks of light and perspective giving it its cuboid shape.

Similarly, we suspect that this mystery doorway will ultimately have an explanation that’s just as ordinary… but we’re having plenty of fun speculating in the meantime.

Whatever it shows, the image comes as the US Congress prepares to hold an open hearing about UFOs for the first time in more than 50 years. The US House Intelligence Committee’s Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation Subcommittee will discuss the subject next Tuesday (May 17).

Panel chair, Andre Carson, said: “The American people expect and deserve their leaders in Government and intelligence to seriously evaluate and respond to any potential national security risks – especially those we do not fully understand.” The US Government released a report on documented cases of so-called ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena’ last summer.

In it, the Director of National Intelligence examined 144 cases of UFOs. They could explain just one of those cases.