NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has begun operations in a new area on the Red Planet nicknamed "the Kimberly" after the Western Australian region.
In a new image uploaded to the Mars Science Laboratory raw image archive, it seems "the Kimberly" is a little more Australian than mission managers originally thought, Discovery News reported.
As spotted by @CoUdErMaNn on Twitter, Curiosity's Navcam photographed a rather interesting-looking rock formation just in front of the rover. The rock, which appears to have been formed through some erosion process, will likely fascinate geologists for some time. But at first glance the rock also appears to take the shape of Australia.
Of course, this is just another example of Martian pareidolia - a psychological phenomenon that tricks your brain into seeing familiar objects in apparently random shapes - but the similarity is uncanny. This is especially quirky as Curiosity is working in a location named after an Australian region.
Curiosity arrived at the Kimberly on Wednesday and the mission is currently studying rocks in the area that may provide further clues to the Red Planet's past habitability and ancient geology. The location has been eyed by mission scientists for over a year, who suspect it will be a science treasure trove.
