{"id":1354,"date":"2014-12-10T19:58:45","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T19:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.austrinus.com\/?p=1354"},"modified":"2022-11-21T20:12:30","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T23:12:30","slug":"el-hombrecito-de-marte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/el-hombrecito-de-marte\/","title":{"rendered":"The "little man from Mars""},"content":{"rendered":"

"It's a little alien walking among the rocks of Mars..."<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"NASA's Spirit and Opportunity probes (launched in 2003) have provided spectacular images of the surface of Mars. Far exceeding their useful life expectancy, the small rovers have continued their successful exploration which, among other discoveries, has provided strong evidence that Mars once had a vast ocean of liquid water.<\/p>\n

While Opportunity is descending into Victoria Crater, Spirit is in a rocky area called 'Home Plate' (for its resemblance to the last base in baseball), inside Gusev Crater. However, a photo of Spirit released on January 3, 2008 has captured the attention of the whole world, because in one area there appears what seems to be a "silhouette", "little man" or "humanoid" whose implication is clear: it would confirm the existence of life on Mars. Let's look at the facts:<\/p>\n

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

\n

This image is fascinating! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw what looks like a naked alien running across Mars. This image would be from a NASA mission and in it a mysterious humanoid-looking shape appears. The images were found on a Chinese website and are said to be photos that NASA kept hidden from the public. Now it is confirmed, there is life on Mars!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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

As noted, the rovers\u00a0Spirit<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Opportunity<\/strong>\u00a0The Martian rovers have been a resounding success for scientists. Initially, they were given a lifespan of only 90 days, but the exploration vehicles have already been in operation (as of early 2008) for 4 years. The Martian terrain has been studied in detail and spectacular views of the surface have been obtained. And it was precisely one of these views that sparked the controversy, due to a formation that apparently shows the head, torso and arm of a "little man" walking (judging by the position of the "arm"). According to the background information gathered, the news first appeared in this article.\u00a0japanese blog<\/a><\/strong>(translated to English\u00a0here<\/a><\/strong>), and later as official news in a British newspaper article\u00a0Daily Mail<\/strong>:\u00a0Life on Mars? Amazing photos from NASA probe reveal mystery figure on Red Planet<\/a>\u00a0("Life on Mars? Stunning NASA photos reveal mysterious figure on the Red Planet.")<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The mystery is solved from smallest to largest...<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"The close-up of the discord.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

As can be seen, at first glance this image can make the imagination fly: the curious formation, which stands out from the rest due to its dark tone, seems to correspond to a humanoid walking among the Martian rocks. However, the pixelation makes it evident that this is just a close-up of a larger image.<\/p>\n

Let's start moving away...<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Comencemos<\/div>\n

This time we can see that the real image is larger, and the "little man" actually occupies a tiny part of the whole. But we still haven't seen the full image.<\/p>\n

Panoramic view<\/strong><\/p>\n

Below we find the complete image of the Spirit, of the place specifically called\u00a0West Valley<\/strong>\u00a0(The circles and arrow have been noted by the Daily Mail.) As we can see (or not see, really), the "little man" is practically imperceptible unless a careful analysis and subsequent enlargement of the area is carried out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I think this series of distances already resolves the issue for more than one reader, partly because many media outlets that reported the news (after the Daily Mail) only showed the first image (the enlargement) omitting the entire context. Of course, this leads to misinterpretations about the size of the "humanoid", which by the way has even been nicknamed "big foot<\/strong>\u00bb (Bigfoot) due to its similar "pose" to a creature filmed in the 1960s in the USA, which was supposedly Bigfoot. It has also been nicknamed "little mermaid<\/strong>"due to its similarity to the statue of a Little Mermaid on a rock at the entrance to the port of Copenhagen (Denmark), which evokes the well-known mythological creature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"Alleged Bigfoot captured in 1967<\/td>\n\"\"Mermaid Statue in Copenhagen, Denmark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Do you want to convince yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No problem! If you want to see the original NASA image (without retouching or annotations), here you can directly see the\u00a0high resolution version<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(39.2Mb<\/em>), or enlarge the image below (lighter). The "little man" is located on the lower left side.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

How were the images of the 'little man' taken?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps looking at the images above has clarified the matter: the "little man" on Mars is nothing more than an eroded rock formation. But if that is not enough, let's look at some details about the image below.<\/p>\n

Color composition<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"The high-resolution images provided by spacecraft and rovers are not ordinary \u201cphotographs.\u201d They are cameras with monochrome detectors that use a series of filters (similar to those of a CCD, as in the image), whose images (one for each filter) are combined to form a single color image. In the case of the panorama of West Valley, Spirit used blue, infrared, and green filters. The time between taking an image for each filter, saving it, changing filters, and taking a new image takes a few moments. In this case, the time span for taking the images with each filter for the subsequent composition was from the\u00a011:58:53<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a012:00:13<\/strong>\u00a0(local time at Spirit's landing site). In other words, the "little man" would have had to remain completely still for\u00a080 seconds<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"But... what if the little man walked very slowly?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Okay, 80 seconds isn't a long time. Maybe the little Martian man is walking at a snail's pace. But this point is made clear by another aspect of Spirit's imaging: It's set up that before the rover takes a full panoramic image (technically, a "panoramic" image), it must take a full panoramic image (technically, a "panoramic" image) of its own.Pancam panorama<\/strong>\u00ab), this takes said image in a fast low-resolution version (\u00abNavcam panorama<\/strong>\u00ab).<\/p>\n

The Navcam image was taken 3 days earlier (sun 1364<\/strong>) than the Pancam (sun 1367<\/strong>). As you can see in the compilation below (Navcams and Pancams, plus a 3D anaglyph), the \u201clittle man\u201d remained in the same position the whole time.<\/p>\n

\u00bf<\/strong>How tall is the "little man" really?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Once again, Spirit's instrumental comes into play here. Using software called\u00a0AlgorimancerPG<\/strong>, which basically uses the rover's binocular vision to estimate distances and sizes of objects around it. In the case of the "little man", the software has determined that he is about 5 meters from the rover, so his size cannot be greater than about\u00a06 centimeters<\/strong>\u00a0(something like the little figure you see on the side). And if you have 3D glasses (if not, they are quite easy to build), you will be able to have a view of the "little man" almost as if you were looking at him from Spirit itself.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Explanations and reflections on this phenomenon<\/strong><\/p>\n

As you can see in the article about the \u201cface on Mars,\u201d 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\u00a0Pareidolia<\/a><\/strong>, and it's what causes things like seeing Mickey on a cloud, a face on Mars or<\/em>\u00a0a little man in a rock formation eroded by the passage of millions of years.<\/p>\n

Below is an example. Personally I live in Antofagasta, northern Chile. Well, inside my area is the Atacama Desert<\/strong>, 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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s a little alien walking on the rocks of Mars\u2026\u201d NASA\u2019s Spirit and Opportunity probes (launched in 2003) have provided spectacular images of the surface of Mars. Far exceeding their expected lifespan, the small rovers have continued their successful exploration, which among other discoveries has provided strong evidence of the existence of Mars.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-desmitificacion"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1-150x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1-300x200.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1-768x512.jpg","large":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1-1024x683.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Farid","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/57e8aa07b0d16e13c8408ea413c009fc7da05f4cbb36da0d568b4235b1eaee6b?s=96&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":false,"magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"\u00abEs un peque\u00f1o alien\u00edgena caminando entre las rocas de Marte…\u00bb Las sondas Spirit y Opportunity de la NASA (lanzadas el 2003) han proporcionado espectaculares im\u00e1genes de la superficie de Marte. Superando ampliamente la expectativa de vida \u00fatil, los peque\u00f1os rovers han proseguido su exitosa exploraci\u00f3n que, dentro de otros descubrimientos, ha brindado fuertes evidencias de…","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["Desmitificaci\u00f3n"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":3642,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":8,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1.jpg",1257,838,false],"medium":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Farid","author_link":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/author\/farid\/"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/57e8aa07b0d16e13c8408ea413c009fc7da05f4cbb36da0d568b4235b1eaee6b?s=96&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"Desmitificaci\u00f3n<\/a>","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1.jpg",1257,838,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1.jpg",1257,838,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1.jpg",1257,838,false],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/humanoidmars-debunk-icon-1.jpg",18,12,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Farid","author_link":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/author\/farid\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"\u00abEs un peque\u00f1o alien\u00edgena caminando entre las rocas de Marte…\u00bb Las sondas Spirit y Opportunity de la NASA (lanzadas el 2003) han proporcionado espectaculares im\u00e1genes de la superficie de Marte. 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