Is This A Multiversal Doorway On Mars, Or Just A Fracture From A Quake?

NASA JPL told Snopes that the “doorway” was a very zoomed-in crevice on a rock that is part of a much larger landscape photographed by Curiosity’s Mastcam. “The team’s scientists underlined just how small [the crevice] is: roughly 30 centimeters wide and 45 centimeters across (11 by 17 inches),” a JPL spokesperson told Snopes via email.

“They [the scientific team] said there are linear fractures throughout this outcrop, and this is a location where several linear fractures happen to intersect,” that JPL spokesperson added. NASA representatives provided Snopes with a large mosaic landscape photograph (created by Neville Thompson, not affiliated with NASA) that gives a better perception of the size of the supposed doorway on the Gale Crater. 

Curiosity has been scouting Gale Crater since it landed in 2012. NASA explains that about 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago, a meteor hit the Red Planet, violently shaping the crater. Scientists believe that water may have been present in the crater in the distant past. For this reason, it was identified as a location of high scientific interest. Curiosity has been searching for clues as to whether Gale Crater ever met the environmental requirements to support life. In May 2022, Curiosity began to slowly approach and climb Aeolis Mons, also known as “Mount Sharp.” Mount Sharp is the highest elevation found in the center of the crater, rising an intimidating 18,000 feet (that’s more than 14 Empire State buildings stacked on top of each other).