Visible door on Mars. Image: NASA
SPACE — Looks like something fishy is going on on Mars. NASA’s Perseverance Rover recently spotted outcrops of what appear to be shark fins and boulders resembling crab claws on the Red Planet.
Since arriving on Mars on February 18, 2021, the six-wheeled robot has been exploring the Jezero Crater on Mars while hunting for signs of ancient life. But the strange rocks he saw on August 18, 2023 were quite surprising.
Although the now barren and arid landscape of Mars was once filled with water billions of years ago, there is no evidence that the planet was rich in any kind of seafood. The picture Perseverance sent, of course, doesn’t change that. Instead, what is evidence of the rocks in the image is the phenomenon of pareidolia.
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Pareidolia refers to the brain’s tendency to see meaningful images from random visual data. This is the reason we see dogs or clowns in the clouds, and this is why humans catch all kinds of famous figures in foodstuffs. And Mars is no stranger to pareidolia.
In fact, one of the most famous examples of pareidolia in history is the iconic ‘Face on Mars’.
What Really is a Face on Mars? The famous Martian Face, an illusion created by shadows that caused quite a stir in the 1970s and 1980s. Image: NASA
In July 1976, NASA’s Viking 1 spacecraft explored Mars from orbit, taking images of the Martian landscape that would later be used to select a Viking 2 landing site. Then something extraordinary unfolded on its operator’s monitors on Earth.
The spacecraft appears to photograph a large statue of a roughly drawn face, filled with eyes, nose and mouth. The picture was shown to the public a few days after it was taken. Although NASA has explained that facial appearances are illusions caused by shadows, this is controversial. Many claim that this is the work of living beings.
The debate around the ‘Face on Mars’ raged, at least in some quarters, during the 1980s, with the publication of books on the subject. In fact, a scientific conference was held to discuss it.
Most of the sensationalism surrounding this image occurred in the late 1990s. In September 1997, NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) arrived on the Red Planet, with one of its main missions to re-examine this rocky outcrop.
“We felt this was important to the taxpayer. We snapped the Face as soon as we could get a good photo,” NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Chief Scientist Jim Garvin explained in a statement.
In April 1998, MGS finally flew over the Cydonia region of Mars, where it is thought to be the Face of Mars, capturing images ten times sharper than those taken 18 years earlier by Viking 1. This suggests the formation is much more natural with evidence of features. faded face. However, some people insist the facial features of the alien monument were obscured by fog when MGS flew over it.
However, those objections were dealt a serious blow in April 2001 when the same spacecraft imaged the outcrop on a cloudless day over Cydonia. This revealed that the Face on Mars is a butte, or mesa, which is a common geological feature in the western United States.
“It reminds me of Middle Butte on Snake River Plains in Idaho. It’s a lava dome in the shape of an isolated mesa that’s the same height as the Face on Mars,” said Garvin.
However, the revelation that this sculpted face of Mars is just a geological structure in general has not discouraged our interest in the outer space simulacrum. In May of this year, Perseverance also captured a shadowy feature on the rock face dubbed the “Eastern Cliff” which many claimed was a “door” carved into the rock. Some people have even speculated that this might be one end of the path to the underground bunker.
NASA tempered speculation when it was revealed the so-called door was wide and only a few inches high. Geologists also muddy the debate by adding that it is possible that it was caused by several straight-line faults occurring simultaneously.
But there’s more to discuss as images recently taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover appear to show abandoned spoons floating above the surface of the Red Planet. The floating cutlery imaged on Aug. 30 turned out to be an oddly shaped rock, and NASA officials wrote in the image description: “No spoon. This odd Martian feature is most likely ventifacts, wind-formed rocks,” NASA officials said. (Left) ) shark-fin rock on Mars. (Right) a large rock shaped like a crab claw. Image: NASA
The “Martian spoon” is just further proof that humans do respond to all Martian-related pareidolia. While these images ultimately represent random rock formations, speculating about their significance can be interesting. Source: Space.com
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2023-09-06 11:35:43
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