Extreme Close-Up of the Face on Mars

Posted in: Mars by Nancy Atkinson


Here's a picture you probably won't see in the tabloid racks while waiting in line at the grocery store. This is the famous "Face on Mars," and is the closest image ever of this landform, taken by the best Mars camera ever, HiRISE on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. And it certainly looks like …. the top of mesa, which is exactly what it is. This feature in the Cydonia region of Mars is most likely a lava dome that has created an isolated mesa or butte-like structure, i.e., a hill. Compare this image to the original image from the Viking orbiter from 1976 image, below, which created such a furor, including a whole new culture of conspiracy theories, books, late-night radio talk show discussion and even a full-length feature film. Alas, its just a hill.


Original 1976 'Face on Mar' image from the Viking Orbiter. Credit: NASA
Viking had much lower spatial resolution than HiRISE, and a different lighting geometry, which made it look like a face. Yes, it does look like a face in this image. But things aren't always as they appear, especially in low resolution and bad light. These newer and better images, starting with the Mars Orbiter Camera on the Mars Global Surveyor (which took images of the Cydonia region in 1998 and 2001) and now HiRISE — which shows incredible detail from 300 kilometers above the surface — have certainly set the record straight. Unfortunately, some people still cling to the notion of a face on Mars.




HiRISE image from 2007 of the 'face' on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
And here's on of my favorites. Jim Garvin, currently the chief scientist of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center created a potential hiking map of the "face," with a great description: "Hike length is approximately 5.5 km or 3.6 miles one way, with a total elevation gain of nearly a thousand feet. Rating…. easy at start and midsection, with some very steep sections. Take plenty of water and oxygen."


http://www.universetoday.com/2010/07/28/extreme-close-up-of-the-face-on-mars/

optical illusion is a real artistic achievement!

Love the hiking trail - I hope there's plenty of parking at the trailhead....

bites the dust.

:evilgrin:

Sorry, but I think it's a cover-up.

I have a hard time telling sometimes.

I always believed it was a cover-up.

what exactly do you think is the coverup?

you don't see the picture either, just parts of what goes to make the whole.

Eye, nose, mouth, chin, neck, hair on the right ...