NASA
started it all back in 1976 with an image of an interesting mountain
on Mars and a caption that described it as appearing to have eyes
and nostrils.
Thirty years later, the Face on Mars still inspires myths and
conspiracy theories.
New images from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter
will confirm for many that the features are natural, while no doubt
offering tantalizing "clues" to others of an ancient intelligent
civilization at work.
The spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera provides data the
researchers turn into colorized perspective views, which simulate
the scene as though you were flying high over the region in an
aircraft. The data was obtained in July and the images released
yesterday.
BELOW: A perspective view showing the so-called
'Face on Mars' located in the Cydonia region.
"They not only provide a completely fresh and detailed view of an
area so famous to fans of space myths all around the world, but also
provide an impressive close-up over an area of great interest for
planetary geologists, and show once more the high capability of the
Mars Express camera," said Agustin Chicarro, ESA Mars Express
project scientist.
The feature known as the Face, along another skull-like feature and
pyramid-looking hills in the vicinity, are in an area called Cydonia
in the Arabia Terra region. It is a transition zone between the
southern highlands and the northern plains, and it contains wide
valleys and ancient remnant mounds, called massifs, of many shapes
and sizes.
BELOW: A second perspective view showing the
so-called 'Face on Mars' located in Cydonia region.
The massif that became the infamous "Face" was first
seen in a photo taken on 25 July 1976 by NASA's Viking 1 Orbiter.
NASA scientists thought it looked like a human head, and although
they knew it was just an illusion, the agency's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory issued this caption:
"The speckled appearance of the image is due to missing data, called
bit errors, caused by problems in transmission of the photographic
data from Mars to Earth. Bit errors comprise part of one of the
'eyes' and 'nostrils' on the eroded rock that resembles a human face
near the center of the image. Shadows in the rock formation give the
illusion of a nose and mouth. Planetary geologists attribute the
origin of the formation to purely natural processes."
A strong myth developed, holding that the Face was an
artificial structure built by some ancient civilization. Surrounding
pyramids—also just interesting-looking massifs—fueled the myth. Last
year, a study helped explain why: People see faces that aren't
there—on Mars or in clouds—because we have "over-learned" to
recognize the human face.
Other photographs of the Face taken more recently show that from
different angles, it does not look much like a face.
BELOW: A perspective view showing a naturally
skull-shaped feature and several pyramid-shaped formations located
in the Cydonia region.
ESA scientists are interested in the geology of the
region. Landslides and broad debris aprons show how the heavily
eroded surface has changed over time, helping them piece together
the real Martian past.
