The robotic probes landed
on Mars have produced a series of astonishing photographic anomalies,
some of which are shown here and here and here. The anomalies include a gigantic mysterious plume; an orb that seemed to move; what
looks like a statue of a woman; a perfect sphere; a shape looking like a
pelvis bone; an arrangement of matter looking like a traffic light;
and a Celtic cross. Now we have what may be the strangest anomaly yet
seen on Mars. The full NASA photograph (as shown on a NASA web page)
can be found here. Below is a closeup.
The "levitating spoon" can be seen in the center (Credit: NASA)
The photo shows what looks
very much like a very long spoon floating in the air. Below this
spoon shape, we see a shadow that seems to exactly match the spoon
shape. How can we explain this wonder?
The initial explanation
offered by mainstream sources in that of pareidolia – the tendency
of the brain to interpret natural or random patterns as being
meaningful shapes that resemble faces or artificial objects. But this
is a non-explanation that does not explain anything.
When dealing with a
puzzling occurrence, you only do something to explain that thing if
you provide some account that causes some reduction in amazement,
causing someone to think, “Now, I'm not so amazed.” For example,
if I'm a farmer, and I find a giant hole in the back of my corn
field, I might be very amazed; and you might reduce my amazement if
you explain that meteors fall every day from the sky, and maybe this
is just a meteor strike. But in the case of this “levitating
spoon,” the idea of pareidolia does nothing to reduce our
amazement. We are amazed by why what looks like a very long floating spoon
with a matching shadow should be seen on Mars, and we are just as much
amazed after the idea of pareidolia is suggested. So there is no
reduction of amazement, meaning pareidolia is just a non-explanation
in this case.
About the only natural
explanation you can come up with to explain such a thing is the idea that
rather than being a spoon shape floating in the air, the spoon shape
is some rock connected to another rock. It could be that the “handle”
of the spoon shape is connected to some other rock. Perhaps the wind
somehow sculpted this long shape out of a larger rock.
But such a hypothesis
doesn't seem to work. For one thing, there is the problem of how
such a very narrow thing so far protruded without structural support
could survive without falling, even in the weaker gravity of Mars.
Then there is the problem that the “handle end” of the “floating
spoon” does not at all seem to be connected to some larger rock,
but seems instead to be floating to the side of a larger rock.
There is a very different
hypothesis that we should seriously consider in this case. This is
the “radical” hypothesis that this “floating spoon” is simply
exactly what it appears to be: a spoon shape floating in midair. We
can call this the levitation hypothesis.
It is rather easy to rebut
the main objections you could bring against such a hypothesis. The
first objection might be that levitation is impossible, that it
contradicts the law of gravitation. This is not at all true. The law
of gravitation in no way prohibits the levitation of objects. What
the law of gravitation merely tells us is that there always will be a
very weak force acting to push down an object on the surface of a
planet. But levitation can be achieved whenever there is a
sufficient force acting underneath an object, causing it to rise up.
Levitation is actually achieved on our planet in things such as
lottery machines (where balls are levitated by jets of air).
So it is possible that
some unknown force was acting underneath this spoon-like object,
causing it to be levitated in the air. The law of gravitation in no
way prohibits such a thing. But what about the very idea of an
unknown force acting mysteriously on an object – is that somehow
prohibited by science?
It certainly is not,
despite the claims made by some skeptics and scientists. Physics
tells us that certain forces are always at work in the universe –
the gravitational force, the electromagnetic force between charged
particles, the strong nuclear force that binds together the nucleus
of an atom, and the weak nuclear force involved in radioactivity.
But nothing in physics or in any other science gives us a legitimate
basis for assuming that the only force that may act on something is
some force that we understand. Making such an assumption is
unwarranted hubris, a case of advancing in a haughty manner some
principle that has not at all been established. We are little
creatures very ignorant of very many of the universe's mysteries, and
we have no business claiming that the only forces that might operate
on something are one of the forces that we understand. Making such a
claim is like some 6th-grader claiming that the only process that may
occur in history is one of the few historical processes that he
understands.
Let's imagine a reasonable
hypothesis that might explain a “levitating spoon” appearing in a
photo of Mars.
- Let us imagine that there exists some unknown mysterious force capable of causing objects to appear in particular places, and causing such objects to levitate. Such a force might be divine, supernatural, spiritual, or extraterrestrial.
- Let us imagine that such a force wishes to demonstrate its existence to humans, by creating manifestations that demonstrate its power.
- Under such conditions, we might actually see a series of “signs and wonders” that might possibly include something like a very long spoon levitating on Mars.
There actually exists very
substantial prima facie evidence to support the first of these
claims. The history of paranormal occurrences since 1850 has included
very many cases in which tables or other objects were seen to
levitate, sometimes under controlled scientific conditions. There
are also many reported cases of objects (sometimes called apports)
that have been seen to appear out of nowhere, as if they had been
brought into existence by some unknown force. For the sake of this
blog post, I don't need to delve into such cases, because here I am
not attempting to prove the likelihood of a premise such as the first
premise, but merely its substantial possibility. The many reported
cases of paranormal levitations and apports are enough to establish
the substantial possibility of the first premise.
Many scientists like to
think that “things like that don't happen,” and that the
only cases of physical action that occur are cases of a type that
they understand. But they are able to cling to such an unwarranted
dogma only by ignoring or dismissing a large stream of reported
observations that suggest the contrary – that, in fact, mysterious
things happen for reasons they do not at all understand. One example
among very many is the case of the Enfield poltergeist that occurred
in England during the 1970's, where a dramatic set of inexplicable occurrences (including levitations) were reported by reliable
witnesses.
It is therefore quite
reasonable to imagine that what we may be seeing on Mars may be some
manifestation of some unknown force completely beyond the
understanding of current science. Given the reports of strange things
that have happened on Earth, there is no reason why we should assume
that equally strange things could not be happening on Mars. A
scientist may think of Mars as his own exclusive wonderland, where
there only occurs the type of things he is comfortable dealing with.
But there is no reason to think that everything we will see in Mars
will always conform to such an expectation.
One of the most amazing
things found previously on Mars was a “Celtic cross” (although it might be just called an X within a circle). Skeptics
have tried to debunk this photo by claiming that it is a screw
imprint from the APXS instrument on the Opportunity rover that took
this picture. My previous blog post refutes this hypothesis. As I
explain in that post, according to the NASA activity log for the Opportunity
rover that took this picture, the APXS instrument was not used at the
site where this photo was taken until the night after the photo was
taken. That means this strange “X within a circle” cannot be
explained as a screw imprint. Again, we have something that almost
looks like some sign being sent by some intelligence trying to alert us as
to its existence.
The "Celtic cross" on Mars (Credit: NASA)
The previous wonders seen
on Mars can mostly be explained as some kind of traces of an ancient
civilization, or of aliens who visited Mars long ago, and left behind
some traces. But the “levitating spoon” wonder may hint that some mysterious intelligence may now be
active on Mars.
I ended a previous post on
the topic of a strange objects found on Mars with this observation:
“I will not be surprised at all if we start to see more and more
cases of artificial-looking things on the planet Mars.” Such an
observations wasn't very explicitly predictive, so let me go out on a
limb and make a more specific prediction. I predict (with only mild confidence) that some of the things we will see on Mars in the years
ahead will be more amazing and inexplicable than any of the things
that have been photographed so far.
Postscript: The original NASA photo seems to show 2 floating objects -- not just a "floating spoon" but also a "floating spatula." See here for more info.
Postscript: The original NASA photo seems to show 2 floating objects -- not just a "floating spoon" but also a "floating spatula." See here for more info.
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