Does this Mars image show an alien in a hallway?

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Does this Mars image show an alien in a hallway?

On February 24, 2026, the Curiosity rover took the above image on Mars with its Mast Camera. And just recently the image has been making the rounds on social media, with some claiming there’s something unusual in the image. At the upper left, there are some rocks with sharp edges. And if you look closely, you might see what looks like a wee Martian wandering down a hallway! Scientists call seeing things — like faces in rocks — pareidolia.

This is a phenomenon that happens a lot with images of Mars. Mars is a dry, rocky world. And when we see pictures of its surface, our brain is always trying to make sense of them in context of what we already know. So sometimes we see a face on Mars, for example. Or, perhaps, a gorilla mask discarded on the ground. And there was this fun sighting of a doorway on Mars.

But, in reality, these are normally occurring formations on the surface of Mars, formed by natural processes such as wind and water.

What do you think you see in the image at top? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Bottom line: What do you see in the Mars image? Some people think the rocks look like a hallway where a little alien is walking. When our brains see faces and figures that aren’t there, it’s called pareidolia.