At first glance, it looks as if a doorway has been carefully carved into a rock face on Mars.

The grainy image, taken by the mast-mounted camera on Nasa’s Curiosity rover on May 7 this year, appears to show an opening with an arched lintel leading to a passageway with smooth walls.

Conspiracy theorists have seized upon the snap as evidence for life on the Red Planet, but scientists were quick to point out that the surrounding geology gives a clear picture of how the formation arose – and unsurprisingly it does not require Martian architects.

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A large fissure to the left of the doorway demonstrates rock-cracking events frequently occur in the region, while a boulder in the foreground appears to have fallen from the opening.

Sanjeev Gupta, a professor of earth science at Imperial College London, one of the scientists of Nasa’s Curiosity rover mission, said the hole was formed through “normal geological processes”.

Read more: yahoo