{"id":1350,"date":"2014-12-10T19:57:56","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T19:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.austrinus.com\/?p=1350"},"modified":"2022-11-21T20:52:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T23:52:09","slug":"cara-marte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/cara-marte\/","title":{"rendered":"The "face of Mars""},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00abIt was built by a Martian civilization\u2026\u00bb<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"'Cara'After the Viking mission to Mars in 1976, everything seemed to indicate that the analysis of photographs would be a routine matter, simply an extensive scientific task of interest only to specific sectors, such as astronomers and planetary geologists. However, in one of these images, photographed on July 25, 1976, a curious rock formation with the appearance of a human face would be evident, which was quickly considered "irrefutable proof" of the existence of life on Mars, whose beings built this face as a clear message of their existence. Likewise, another series of nearby rock structures were interpreted as pyramids and remains of an ancient Martian city. Let's see the "heads and tails" of this story:<\/p>\n

Pseudoscience says...<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

There is ample and indisputable evidence of a civilization on Mars. The formations seen in the Viking photos are the work of intelligent beings, the original inhabitants of the planet Mars. The "city" visible in the Cydonia photos is said to be made up of several pyramids, other structures similar to buildings and the "face", all of which appear to have been built and not merely the result of the natural forces that shape the surface of a planet.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Science says...<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Viking 1 and Viking 2 missions were twin probes sent to the planet Mars, consisting of an "orbiter" and a "lander" respectively. Viking 1 would orbit the red planet, while Viking 2 would descend to the surface and take a series of technical data. The mission was a success and valuable data on Martian topography and surface features were obtained, constituting the first mission of its kind. Among the images sent by Viking 1, one in particular is extremely curious because it shows a rock formation that looks like a human face. This formation is 1.5 km wide, and is illuminated by the sun's rays falling at an angle of 20\u00ba. It is located in a region of Mars called Cydonia, at 40.75\u00b0 N and 350.54\u00b0 E.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

History of a mystery: from 1976 to 2001<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Pol\u00e9micaThe controversy of the moment: 1976.<\/strong><\/p>\n

NASA gave a brief press conference mentioning this geological feature, but scientists interpreted it as a simple play of light and shadow on a natural rock formation, giving it the appearance of a face. Despite this, many people thought that the "face" was artificial and built by a Martian civilization, and that NASA was covering up the fact. A series of surrounding structures were also highlighted, which people recognized as pyramids and remains of an ancient city. The controversy persisted for many years, and several theories and supposed alignments involved in the so-called "face on Mars" were even postulated.<\/p>\n

\"SeThe mystery begins to be revealed: 1998.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was not until April 5, 1998, with the new Mars Global Surveyor probe, equipped with much more modern instruments and higher-resolution cameras, that the famous "face" would be revealed for what it was: a simple, very rugged natural formation, which in reality did not have any appearance of a face. This was made possible by photographs 10 times sharper than those taken by Viking 1, allowing a much better appreciation of the landscape. However, some pro-artificiality fans of the "face" were still not satisfied...<\/p>\n

\"ElThe mystery is solved: 2001.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On April 8, 2001, Mars Global Surveyor took another look at the Cydonia region, this time in very favorable weather (the 1998 observation was haze-covered). This time, the camera's highest resolution was used, with each pixel covering an area of 1.56 m. The very impressive result showed that the supposed "face" was nothing more than a collapsed hill-like formation, with no artificial appearance. When compared with the 1998 images and those from 1976, the difference is notable and reveals that any doubts that may have existed were only due to the images not being sufficiently sharp and leaving room for the imagination.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Additionally, on 21 September 2006, ESA's Mars Express spacecraft again imaged the Cydonia region and produced perspective views showing the rock formations in great detail. The images have a resolution of 13.5 m per pixel and were colourised using 3 colour channels - HRSC. The perspective views were calculated from a digital terrain model derived from the stereo channels. As seen in the images below, the "face of Mars" is an example of how new technologies are dramatically improving the quality of space images, and eliminating misunderstandings caused by blurry images of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"La
The 'face of Mars' in high resolution, by Mars Global Surveyor, 2001.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
\n
\"La
The 'face of Mars' in perspective view, by Mars Express, 2006.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
\n
\"La
The 'face of Mars' in opposite perspective, by Mars Express, 2006.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

And the \u201cpyramids\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The alleged Martian pyramids are described as symmetrical formations very close to the "face", presumably the remains of a city that was home to an ancient civilization. They are often attempted to appear aligned in one way or another with the "face". Although the images of the Viking mission show that these formations have a certain pattern, when looking at more recent images it becomes evident that these are actually plateaus of similar height to the "face", although they have a more regular pattern, similar to dunes. It is thought that they may correspond to eroded formations that protrude from the ground, which would be a probable sign that, in the past, the Cydonia region was located near a beach of liquid water. It is worth mentioning that, with the high-resolution images obtained in 2001 and 2006, if there were artificial structures such as pyramids or even small houses, these would be easily recognizable, since the objects are recognizable when their image is 3 times the size of the pixel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Las
The 'pyramids' in the Cydonia region, by the Viking mission, 1976.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
\n
\"Las<\/a>
The 'pyramids' of Cydonia, by Mars Express, 2006. (Click to enlarge).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
\n
\"Las<\/a>
The "pyramids" seen in a three-dimensional model (Click to enlarge).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Therefore\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

The famous "face on Mars" is nothing more than a natural rock formation in the Cydonia region, a collapsed and eroded hill, which in the past could possibly have been part of a beach that had liquid water, like the surrounding formations, with shapes similar to "pyramids". Despite the resemblance to a human face revealed by the Viking mission in 1976, it was shown that the "face" was indeed a play of light and shadow helped by the blurriness of the image, because the instruments did not yet have such good resolution. The images provided by the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Express probes, in 1998-2001 and 2006 respectively, confirmed this hypothesis and gave us spectacular images of Cydonia, which despite not having artificial constructions, show a landscape of special interest to planetary geologists, due to the particular characteristics that could have formed this Martian region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Pan\u00f3ramica
Panoramic of Mars, Viking 1, 1976, with the original view diffused in low resolution.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
\n
\"Pan\u00f3ramica<\/a>
Panoramic of Mars, Mars Global Surveyor, 2001. Click to enlarge.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Disappointed with the actual shape of the \u201cface on Mars\u201d? Below you will see 3 images of Mars that are also quite curious, in order to give a \u201chappy\u201d and \u201cromantic\u201d sense to this matter.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

Happy face on Mars<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first of these is the "happy face crater", a Martian region where, simply by a topographic coincidence, a smiling face appears to be visible. Its real name is Galle Crater, and it is about 215 km in diameter.<\/p>\n

1st martian heart<\/strong><\/p>\n

The second is a "heart" (a very pretty one, by the way), discovered by the Mars Global Surveyor in 1999; this is simply a depression in the surface about 2.3 km wide, formed along a fault line.<\/p>\n

2nd Martian heart<\/strong><\/p>\n

And finally, another heart! Also discovered by the Mars Global Surveyor (and published just before Valentine's Day 2000), it is a plateau approximately 255 meters long, in the southern polar zone of the red planet.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00abIt was built by a Martian civilization\u2026\u00bb After the Viking mission to Mars in 1976, everything seemed to indicate that the analysis of the photographs would be a matter of routine, simply an extensive scientific task of interest only to specific sectors, such as astronomers and planetary geologists. However, in one of these images, photographed on 25th\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-desmitificacion"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-marsface-banner-150x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-marsface-banner-300x200.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-marsface-banner-768x512.jpg","large":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-marsface-banner-1024x683.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-marsface-banner.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-marsface-banner.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-marsface-banner.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Farid","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/57e8aa07b0d16e13c8408ea413c009fc7da05f4cbb36da0d568b4235b1eaee6b?s=96&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":false,"magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"\u00abFue construida por una civilizaci\u00f3n marciana…\u00bb Luego de la misi\u00f3n Viking a Marte en 1976, todo parec\u00eda indicar que el an\u00e1lisis de las fotograf\u00edas ser\u00eda cosa de rutina, simplemente una extensa labor cient\u00edfica de inter\u00e9s s\u00f3lo para sectores espec\u00edficos, como astr\u00f3nomos y ge\u00f3logos planetarios. 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