3.10: What is the face on Mars?
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This article is from the Scientific Skepticism FAQ, by Paul Johnson Paul@treetop.demon.co.uk with numerous contributions by others.
3.10: What is the face on Mars?
One of the Mars orbiters took a photograph of a part of Mars (Cydonia)
when the sun was very low on the horizon. The picture shows a "face"
and some nearby pyramids. Both these structures are seen more by
their shadows than their actual shape. The pyramid shadows appear
regular because their size is close to the limit of resolution of the
camera, and the "face" is just a chance arrangement of shadow over a
couple of hills. The human brain is very good at picking out familiar
patterns in random noise, so it is not surprising that a couple of
Martian surface features (out of thousands photographed) vaguely
resemble a face when seen in the right light.
Many people find the "face" more reminiscent of a monkey than a human
being.
Richard Hoagland has championed the idea that the Face is artificial,
intended to resemble a human, and erected by an extraterrestrial
civilization. Most other analysts concede that the resemblance is most
likely accidental. Other Viking images show a smiley-faced crater and
a lava flow resembling Kermit the Frog elsewhere on Mars. There exists
a Mars Anomalies Research Society (sorry, don't know the address) to
study the Face and related features.
The Mars Observer spacecraft had (and for all we know it still has) a
camera that could give 1.5m per pixel resolution. Unfortunately NASA
scientists lost contact with the spacecraft just before it arrived at
Mars. Among the theories proposed to explain this are:
1: The failure of a couple of transistors after spending years in
space.
2: The presence of evil beings on Mars who wish to hide their
existence from humanity (so why did they build the Face and let
Viking see it?).
3: The existence of a conspiracy on the part of NASA and the US
government to hide the existence of aliens from humanity (see
section 0.8 on Conspiracy theories).
Anyone who wants to learn some more about this should look up "Image
Processing", volume 4 issue 3, which includes enhanced images of the
"face". Hoagland has written "The Monuments of Mars: A City on the
Edge of Forever", North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, USA,
1987.
[Some of this is from the sci.space FAQs]
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