The "little man from Mars"

Explanations and reflections on this phenomenon

As you can see in the article about the “face on Mars,” a common phenomenon regarding the case of the little man is that our brains play tricks on us. We tend to see familiar things (objects, animals, humans, etc.) in randomly arranged inanimate structures (clouds, vegetation, rocks, etc.). This is known as Pareidolia, and it's what causes things like seeing Mickey on a cloud, a face on Mars or a little man in a rock formation eroded by the passage of millions of years.

Below is an example. Personally I live in Antofagasta, northern Chile. Well, inside my area is the Atacama Desert, famous for being the driest place in the world. But it also stands out for being the place on Earth most similar to the planet Mars, and for this reason prototypes of rovers for future missions have been tested. For this reason I developed an experiment. The following photos were taken in the Atacama Desert, and I have tried to identify certain "things" that seem to be seen in each one. Of course those things are not there, but I invite the reader to try to "see" the same thing if he is able to, and put his pareidolia to the test!