Mars Photo of the Day - Mar 13 2012

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Today's Image of Mars shows mesas (flat topped hills or mountains) in the Cydonia region, as taken by Mars Express. One of the more prominent mesa's in this image can be seen in the far lower right. It became famous as the Face on Mars because Viking 1 Orbiter took an image of it that made it look like a human face. This created significant controversy, with conspiracy theorists claiming it was placed there by another species as a sign to humanity.

It turns out the reason why the rock looks like a face is much more mundane. It just happens that the time and angle Viking 1 took the image resulted in the mesa's features being lit in such a way that it resembled a human face. Subsequent images of the face on Mars (including this one) were taken with other orbiters and showed that it was nothing more than coincidence that the Viking 1 image made it look like a face.

As you can see in this image, the face on Mars is simply an interesting looking mesa, not a sign from another species, but despite all the evidence provided since the original Viking 1 image, conspiracy theorists continue to claim cover up. Sometimes people just can't be satisfied with reality I guess. 

I recommend clicking on this image so you can see the high resolution version and zoom in on the figure known as the face on Mars.

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Mars Photo of the Day - Jan 9 2012

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Today's Image of Mars is of the Face on Mars, one of the most famous pareidolias on Mars.

In 1976 the Viking I Orbiter was taking photos of possible landing sites for Viking II when it took the below shot of what looked like a human face. Scientists quickly realized this 'face' for what it was, a mesa with irregular shadows that at the right angle made it look like the face of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.

The Face on Mars soon captured the public interest, but what many people don't realize is that NASA wanted that to happen. They initially published the photo with a caption "huge rock formation ... which resembles a human head ... formed by shadows giving the illusion of eyes, nose and mouth." They the created a public relations campaign around The Face on Mars. According to NASA "the authors [of the initial caption] reasoned it would be a good way to engage the public and attract attention to Mars." They were successful - perhaps too successful.

 The public became fascinated by The Face on Mars, with some theorizing it was an alien artifact being covered up by NASA. NASA felt it was important to dispatch these claims, so they imaged it with the Mars Global Surveyor in 1998 and 2001. [See those images in this NASA article]

Regardless of evidence, there will always be people that wish to believe in conspiracy, so NASA hasn't convinced them all, despite having a high resolution image of The Face. NASA has even pointed out they would have no reason to deny a civilization on Mars because their budget would surely increase if one was discovered. Alas, the Face on Mars is just one of many mesas in the Cydonia region of Mars.

Clicking on this image will take you to the 2001 article about the Face on Mars and the various images taken of it.

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Mars Photo of the Day - Dec 13 2011

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Today's Image of Mars is of Hebes Chasma, an enclosed trough located in the most northern part of Valles Marineris that measures nearly 8000m deep. In the center of Hebes Chasma is an 8000m high mesa (flat topped mountain) with many layered deposits. It almost rises to the same height as the terrain surrounding Hebes Chasma.

Measurements from the OMEGA spectrometer on Mars Express have shown water bearing minerals, like gypsum, in Hebes Chasma, evidence that there was once an abundance of water in the trough.

It is thought that Hebes Chasma formed because of enormous stress in the Martian crust, which resulted in a number of radial faults. This stress was likely caused by crustal uplift from the development of many volcanoes in the nearby Tharsis region.

You really need to click on this image so you can see the high resolution image from the ESA. [See their article on this image and others like it]

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Mars Photo of the Day - Nov 3 2011

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Today's Image of Mars shows a mesa on the eastern floor of Aram Chaos, a 1300km (~800mi) diameter depression. (A mesa is a hill/mountain with a flat top) It is thought that a cataclysmic amount of water was released from this depression, which led to the creation of the 2000km long outflow channel, Ares Vallis.

Surrounding the center mesa you can see many isolated hills and eroding mesas. A variety of dune fields are visible in this image. The interplay between the dunes, eroded land forms, and light and dark-toned materials enables scientists to determine the relative age of each feature, as well as the composition of the interacting materials.

Clicking on this image will take you to a related, captioned image by HiRISE. This image is a subimage of that captioned image.

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