Gorilla On Mars?

By Nancy Atkinson - March 05, 2010 09:39 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Classify this one under the same nonsense as the "Bigfoot on Mars" the wooden plank on Mars, or perhaps even the "Face on Mars." Just an optical illusions, folks from a very, very zoomed in image from the Mars rovers. The Sun newspaper seemingly started this foolishness on what must have been a slow news day.

Doug Ellison from Unmanned Spaceflight put together this "poster" about the gorilla (Click image for larger version):

And the folks at Image Shack show the real dimensions of the rock:

The original image has been around awhile. It was taken by the Opportunity rover back on sol 87 in 2004. Click here to see the original image. Can you see any gorillas? I'm sure if you look really close and zoom in and distort any of the rocks you can see whatever you fancy.

Sources: Planetary Blog, Io9

Interview+ ▶ Our latest video — free on Patreon 4 Years In, We Still Have No Idea What JWST's Biggest Discovery Is. Here's Why It's Awesome The extended edition: ad-free, with extra content. Free to watch — no account needed. ▶ Watch it free

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com