The remarkable geometric structure, estimated to be 3km wide, was initially detected by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor’s Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) several years ago.
However, it has recently been brought into the limelight thanks to Musk’s friend and podcaster Joe Rogan.
Responding to the scientific images shared by another user, Rogan exclaimed: “This is fucking WILD”.
Musk responded with: “We should send astronauts to Mars to investigate!”
Some social media users have speculated that the formation could be the work of extraterrestrial intelligence. Comments ranged from comparisons to the Great Pyramid of Giza, to assertions that “Nothing in nature creates straight lines. Someone made that”
Others asked, “Who wants to bet there used to be life on Mars?”
Meanwhile, others dismissed the mystery surrounding the formations.
A user named ‘rebas’ argued: “Natural geological fracturing can cause right angles like that. It’s not amazing to search an entire planet and find one or two. Amazing would be finding so many its approaching a statistical impossibility.”