Google+ Mars Travel: Mars Photo of the Day - Apr 5 2012

Mars Photo of the Day - Apr 5 2012

Today's Image of Mars shows what we call a pareidolia, where you see something that isn't really there. This happens because the mind tries to associate everything it sees with something familiar so that it can understand it better. In this case many people looking at this will see an elephant (or if you didn't you probably do now).

Click on this image to see the original image from HiRISE.
[See the HiRISE caption for the image]

One the most famous pareidolia on Mars is the Face on Mars.

This image is actually a lava flow in Elysium Planitia, the youngest lava-flood province on Mars. Elysium Planitia is almost entirely covered by lava flows, which made the the region almost entirely flat. The lava flows are so young that the surface has not been checkered with numerous impact craters like most of the Martian surface. The lava flows erased all evidence of prior impacts by filling in the craters.

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