From a moon that looks like the Death Star to a happy face on Mars: Hilarious photos show the funnier side of space travel

A selection of strange and amusing images have been taken from spaceThese include a giant tick on Venus and a happy face on MarsNasa claims all these sightings are just optical illusions

Mickey Mouse was spotted on Mercury in June 2012. A larger crater adjoins two smaller 'ear' craters create this optical illusion. Mercury is the closest planet to our Sun and takes just 88 days to orbit. It is the smallest planet in our solar system

Is there life on Mars? Maybe not, but there is a pyramid, a floating spoon and a large human brain.

These are some of the space oddities captured by Nasa in their search for life on other planets.

However, all these sightings are just optical illusions caused by reasons including wind-shaped rocks, impact craters and remnants of volcanic activity.

Other examples see a giant tick on Venus, in fact a volcano and a Mars crater resembling a happy face.

For sci-fi fans, there is even a rock-shape that resembles Han Solo in carbonite was spotted on Mercury by Nasa's Messenger probe.

These amusing space pictures prove that space exploration doesn't always have to be serious.

Saturn's moon Mimas looks like the Death Star from Star Wars. The icy moon is dominated by the vast Herschel Crater which looks just like the opening to the fictional space station. However, there's no need to worry as apparently Mimas is just a harmless, and apparently lifeless, space rock

Mar's Happy Face crater was shot by the Mars Global Surveyor aircraft in March 1999. The face appears to have two eyes and a big grin. These pictures show some of the space oddities captured by Nasa in their search for life on other planets

What appears to be a human brain was spotted by the Mars Global Surveyor robot spacecraft. It is actually a kilometre-wide impact crater. Launched in 1996, Mars Global Surveyor was an American robotic spacecraft developed by Nasa

This picture of a crater resembling a 'happy face' was taken in January 2008, by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Context Camera. The unnamed crater is almost 2 miles (about 3 kilometres) across. The face appears to have a mount, nose and even an upturned mouth to denote a smile

This image shows the famous Face on Mars from a little back. Scientists figured it was another Martian mesa, common enough around Cydonia. Unusually this one had unusual shadows that made it look like an Egyptian Pharaoh

A shape that resembles Han Solo in carbonite was spotted on Mercury in July 2011 by NASA's Messenger probe. Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon, was one of the great leaders of the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars

Image taken by Mars Rover in 2015 appears to show a pyramid shape. The pyramid is estimated to be the size of a small car or the capstone of a much larger pyramid buried beneath the Martian sand

In 2015 NASA's Mars rover Curiosity spotted what looked like a floating spoon. In the photo, a handle shape juts out from an outcrop and ends in a rounded tip. Like other 'sightings' on Mars, it's a strangely shaped rock, according to Nasa