Detailed Deconstruction of the "Face" and Pyramids on Mars Claims

By Nancy Atkinson - June 2, 2014 at 5:26 PM UTC | Planetary Science
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Intrigued by the thought of alien artifacts on Mars, with structures like a Martian-built statue of a giant face surrounded by pyramids or even cities? Better check the math on that. Better yet, Stuart Robbins has already checked that math and

BOOM!

it doesn't check out.

So called "Mars anomalists" like Richard Hoagland have already been debunked mightily by folks like

Phil Plait,

but Robbins -- who hosts the

"Exposing Pseudo Astronomy" podcast

-- takes it to a whole new level. He's just put out a video version of his podcast about claims about the Cydonia region on Mars, some of the math behind it, an exploration of the "null hypothesis" (what the results would be if it were purely random), and draws conclusions based on the latest orbital imagery of Mars.

Hoagland and others claim some of the features in Cydonia display special geometry and numbers that are encoded within them. And, the only way those numbers and that geometry could be there is if it was created by some sort of intelligence, i.e

aliens

. Robbins provides detailed explanations of the mathematical simulations and the arguments against these claims.

"What the Mars anomalists do is a really good example of cherry picking/the

Texas Sharpshooter fallacy

," Robbins told Universe Today. He concludes the video by basically saying, "Hey! Space exploration is still awesome and cool, and you really don't NEED the pseudoscience to make it amazing and rewarding."

Watch above, and check out

Robbins' excellent podcast.

Nancy Atkinson

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