The Martian desert is rich in curiosities. 

And Star Trek symbolism, too. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — a satellite zipping around the red planet — captured a mass of ancient lava rock that looks strikingly like the Star Trek Starfleet insignia donned by the show's galactic explorers. 

"Enterprising viewers will make the discovery that these features look conspicuously like a famous logo: and you'd be right, but it's only a coincidence," NASA scientists said. 

NASA's planetary researchers, like they always do, had a realistic explanation for the geologic feature, calling it "a complex story of dunes, lava, and wind." Read more...