Mars Face
Written by John Carl Villanueva
Face on Mars. credit: NASA
Before scientists knew that it was nothing more than a piece of raised land much like the mesas in the southwestern places of the United States, photos of that formation looked very much like a humanoid face.
Now, I don't think I need to remind you that Mars is frequently associated with aliens or E.T. The younger generation may be familiar with the Martian Manhunter, one of Superman's colleagues in the JLA (Justice League of America). Then there's the sci-fi classic from the late 1800's – The War of the Worlds.
Those two are just part of the vast collection of books, comic books, films, TV shows, radio shows, and lately, video games that have helped fan the flame. Just imagine yourself in the 1970's, after having been under the influence of those mentioned, and then no less than NASA shows you such "damning evidence".
In the mid 1970's NASA sent the Viking probes to take pictures of Mars. Since Cydonia was an albedo feature, scientists were naturally interested on what it really was. Well, the images it took of Cydonia was interesting alright – staring right at them, in one of the photographs, was the Mars face.
If it was only the Mars face, perhaps many would have downplayed it as a photograph anomaly. However, that was not all. The same set of images also showed pyramid-like formations nearby. And, as if to drive the point home, a vast smooth region was also revealed.
E.T. advocates interpreted the whole collage this way: The 'face' was built by a civilization living in a city (the pyramids) that stood right beside an ocean (the smooth region). Of course, no civilization was found then. They simply believed that once upon a time, Martians (inhabitants of Mars) roamed the Red Planet.
Naturally, when the time came that NASA had the right equipment (i.e., cameras with much higher resolutions), their first priority upon returning was to take pictures of the same region. Lo and behold, the sharper photographs revealed the formation that formed a Mars face as it really was – nothing more than a mesa.
Speculation that Mars may have once been inhabited by intelligent lifeforms still exists. That is why the top priority of Mars expeditions is usually to find traces of water, the fundamental requirement for a civilization to thrive.
Want to know more about new images of the Face on Mars? How about another article talking about the Face on Mars? We've got both here on Universe Today.
There's more about it at NASA. Here are a couple of sources there:
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
Filed under: Astronomy
Tags: face on mars, life on mars, mars face, martian
