NASA may be preparing to send the first humans to Mars, but it looks like Star Trek's Starfleet may have beaten them to it.
The US Space Agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has uncovered a huge formation in the shape of the organisation's famous chevron logo on the surface of the Red Planet.
The formation is located in southeast Hellas Planitia - a plain located within the huge impact basin known as Hellas in Mars's southern hemisphere.
"Enterprising viewers will make the discovery that these features look conspicuously like a famous logo," said Ross Beyer, senior research scientist at the SETI Institute.
However, Trekkies will be disappointed to hear that "it's only a coincidence".
Beyer explained that the formation is not, in fact, evidence of a visit by Captain Kirk and his crew, but a "footprint" of an ancient sand dune.
"Long ago, there were large crescent-shaped (barchan) dunes that moved across this area, and at some point, there was an eruption," he explained.
"The lava flowed out over the plain and around the dunes, but not over them. The lava solidified, but these dunes still stuck up like islands.
"However, they were still just dunes, and the wind continued to blow. Eventually, the sand piles that were the dunes migrated away, leaving these 'footprints' in the lava plain."
The formations are known as “dune casts”, and record the presence of dunes that were once surrounded by lava.
Dune casts aren't uncommon on Mars, with around 300 uncovered in the Hellas Planitia, and and a further 480 spotted in a region of Mars called the Noctis Labyrinthus.
That didn't stop Captain Kirk himself (actor William Shatner) weighing in, with a taunt directed at rival sci-fi franchise Star Wars:
