NASA's remote-controlled rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, apparently left tracks on the Red Planet that would turn any prude's face red too.
According to Science World Report (SWR), the Mars rovers drew what looks like a giant phallus on the Martian surface.
But the report added that the tracks were due neither to a programming glitch nor to a naughty engineer: it's all part of the rovers' programming.
"The problem, it turns out, lies in the rovers' actual programming. In order to find new routes, NASA scientists designed the rovers to spin in tight circles to test nearby terrain. This, in turn, helped create the massive penis that is now etched on the surface of the Red Planet," it said.
As a result, the rovers' tires left tracks on the Martian surface that resembled a dick.
Spirit and Opportunity were launched in 2004 to survey Mars' surface for signs of water erosion and possibly life.
While the picture has apparently been around for some time, it was only recently that users of Reddit discovered it —leading to a deluge of viewers that allegedly almost crashed NASA's website.
"Who doesn't want to see a giant penis picture drawn on the surface of another planet?" quipped SWR.
Still, it remained unclear when the image was created: SWR said NASA lost communication with Spirit in 2009 after it got stuck in sand, while Opportunity is still roaming toward the Endeavour crater.
"We can only hope that its dick-drawing tendencies don't surface again any time soon. After all, we don't need extraterrestrials thinking that we're that into phallic images," SWR said. — TJD, GMA News
How's that for a throwback Thursday?
Source: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/305712/scitech/science/nasa-rovers-leave-phallus-on-mars