The Face on Mars

[aardvaark]

No matter what you believe about whether or not it is a structure,I hope this Hi-res orbiter will take some clear and totally unambigous photos to clear up once and for all exactly what it is.

[reilly]

Hi,
Just looking at the hi-res mars photo.
presumably all those craters are from meteoroids.
why are there so many?
also i would guess mars would be subject to a similar bombardment as Earth - ie minimal.
And why does the martian weather not erase the craters as happens on earth? (at least for the smaller ones)
Thanks

[makc]

Like this was not close enough.

[Qev]

I've never quite understood why people get so bent out of shape over that thing. I mean... given an entire surface of a planet, odds are something is going to end up looking vaguely like a human face.

It doesn't help that the human brain is pretty much hardwired to pick out human faces out of completely random noise...

[harry]

hello all

I thought the face was old hut.

I did not realize that some people question the face.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010528.html

Oh well so be it.

The face was put there by aliens.

[BMAONE23]

Hi,
Just looking at the hi-res mars photo.
presumably all those craters are from meteoroids.
why are there so many?
also i would guess mars would be subject to a similar bombardment as Earth - ie minimal.
And why does the martian weather not erase the craters as happens on earth? (at least for the smaller ones)
Thanks

Consider, Earth has an active, protective atmosphere that shields us from such things as Leonid and other meteor showers. Mars is not so lucky. It will be regularly slammed by the small pebble size space drbris that burns up in our atmosphere.

[aardvaark]

I never saw that picture from 2001 but it will still be interesting to see it in hi-res detail simply because it has generated so much controversy over the years and there still a lot of people who think it is a structure of some sort.

[BMAONE23]

Aardvaark
Hhere is the image I think you mean

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/martia ... _proc.html

It doesn't look much like a face here.

[aardvaark]

yep,that's the one.

I think that one reason so many people would like to believe that it is something other than a natural formation is simply that we are hoping that we aren't the only ones looking up at the night sky and wondering.

[JohnD]

All,
We should not be surprised at face shaped formations on Mars - there has been one discovered already at "Roosevelt" by Mars Rover Opportunity: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/ ... 0217a.html

And there are many on Earth. Some are fakes - see the 'Marree Man' at 29deg 31' 50.36"S 137 deg22' 02.32"E.

Others may be natural but are so detailed that fakery must be suspected - the Face on Canada at 50deg 00' 37.42"N 110deg 06' 50.61"W. I'm still hoping that some enterprising Canadian will fly over the latter and report if it is A/ really there, and not a hack into Google Earth, or B/ just an artefact of low res imaging.
Any why should a 'face on canada' look so like a Mayan?

John

[Orca]

Oh yeah, next you'll say the canals made by Martians aren't real, either!

[harry]

Hello All

It amazing what a face to face discussion.

Why not a toe or a finger?

[BMAONE23]

The Toe or Finger was visible at Eagle Crater with Opportunity rover

[Martin]

Well it is an interesting outcropping of property isn’t it? I wonder who will claim it 1st.

Saying that it looks like a face is purely imaginative however, it is most peculiar.

I wonder what the great pyramids of Egypt will look like after all life is extinct, our planet loses its atmosphere / water and dust and grain particles scatter about everywhere causing an extreme desert-like condition over the entire planet. Could the then half covered mostly eroded pyramids resemble a natural outcropping of rock as well?

Just because it may not be a face does not mean it’s any less significant.