Mars Anomalies

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There’s so much interesting information regarding Mars nowadays. There’s ground-level information from the two rovers Spirit and Opportunity; views from above from the Mars orbiters Odyssey, Express, and Reconnaissance Orbiter; and of course, mind-stimulating analysis of Mars anomalies from the conspiracy theorists.

Since the Web explosion of the 1990′s, more than a hundred million websites have already sprouted. Today, with the advent of easy-to-use blogging tools, you no longer have to be a geek to build one. This has enabled people to share their views to the wide Web-based audience.

Among those who have benefited from this relatively easier information sharing environment (whether audio, video, images, and text) are the conspiracy theorists – including those who specialize in Martian civilization. You can now see hundreds of thousands of pages around the Web discussing Mars anomalies.

And millions of Web users can read through articles of Mars anomalies, see the images posted there, and make their own intelligent assessment. While many easily dismiss the posts as outlandishly false, there are also those who find the explanations logical enough.

In case you’re not familiar with the term, Mars anomalies are strange objects that have been observed in some images taken of Mars’ surface. They are strange because they look like signs of living organisms. In fact, many of these signs seem to indicate the presence of intelligent inhabitants, just like us.

NASA scientists have not yet come across any conclusive evidence that there exists or there existed a Martian civilization. On the other hand, conspiracy theorists are inclined to believe that they (the scientists) already have but are just keeping the matter under wraps. The theorists point to the images as evidence.

For example, on Cosmic Conspiracies’ page entitled “Mars Anomalies”, there are images that show what appear to be glass tunnels and dome structures on Mars. On another website named Mars Anomaly Research, one page features images that show tree-like structures.

Of course, the source of all these images is NASA itself.

The conspiracy theorists basically scour through thousands of images released by NASA, zoom into portions of the images that look strange, then provide their interpretation of the scene.

NASA scientists, recognizing the gullibility of some members of the general public, have provided explanations regarding these images and the Mars anomalies found there. In most cases, the reasons revolve around poor image resolution and optical illusions.

Suddenly curious about Cydonia and the Face on Mars? Just click those links.

There’s more about it at NASA. Here are a couple of sources there:
Unmasking the Face on Mars
Mars Shoreline Tests: Massifs in the Cydonia Region
Here are two episodes at Astronomy Cast that you might want to check out as well:
Stellar Roche Limits, Seeing Black Holes, and Water on Mars
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

References:
Mars Anomaly Research
Mars Anomalies

Tagged as: Mars, mars anomalies, martian, NASA