Nasa finds Star Trek logo on the surface of Mars

Image source, NASA

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the marking, which looks a lot like the 'starfleet' logo in the Sci-Fi series Star Trek.

Nasa tweeted the image and said ""Enterprising viewers will make the discovery that these features look conspicuously like a famous logo: and you'd be right".

The marking is similar to the logo of the 'starship enterprise', the spacecraft featured in Star Trek.

Nasa agreed that it looked like the famous logo but also said "it's only a coincidence".

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, Captain Kirk's character William Shatner (middle, dressed in gold) had fun with sci-fi rivals Star Wars

The marking created quite the stir on Twitter between actors of two massive sci-fi stories, Star Wars and Star Trek.

William Shatner, who played Captain James Kirk in the original Star Trek programme in the 1960s tweeted Star Wars saying "we beat you".

Mark Hamill who starred as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars responded with "Looks like a boomerang to me. #meh".

Image source, NASA

Image caption, The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the images whilst circling the planet

So what formed the shape?

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took pictures on its trip around the planet.

Nasa said that the shape was probably caused when a volcanic eruption produced lava which flowed around some sand dunes but not over them.

The lava has now cooled and left this strange marking on the surface.