Face on Mars Gets a Make-Over

Alien54 writes "ESA's Mars Express has obtained images of the Cydonia region, site of the famous 'Face on Mars.' using the High Resolution Stereo Camera. After multiple attempts to image the Cydonia region from April 2004 until July 2006 were frustrated by altitude and atmospheric dust and haze, the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board Mars Express finally obtained, on 22 July, a series of images that show the famous 'face' on Mars in unprecedented detail, with a ground resolution of approximately 13.7 metres per pixel."

Comments

Quick

[Anonymous Coward]

Quick, someone tell Zak McKracken!

Primary Goal of the Mission

[eldavojohn]

Taking these pictures of the face was the primary goal of this mission. ESA was sick of listening to its citizens bitch about there being a 30 year "pictures of the face on Mars" gap (that's a rough translation from European).

But seriously, it is the first goal of the Mars Orbiter:

The Mars Express Orbiter will:

• image the entire surface at high resolution (10 metres/pixel) and selected areas at super resolution (2 metres/pixel);
• produce a map of the mineral composition of the surface at 100 metre resolution;
• map the composition of the atmosphere and determine its global circulation;
• determine the structure of the sub-surface to a depth of a few kilometres;
• determine the effect of the atmosphere on the surface;
• determine the interaction of the atmosphere with the solar wind.

The Beagle 2 lander was planned to:

• determine the geology and the mineral and chemical composition of the landing site;
• search for life signatures (exobiology);
• study the weather and climate.

I guess I would rather see something more than just regular images come from a mission. Right now, I can see all these things on the ESA's site that help the user see all these pictures of Mars but I don't see any maps of mineral composition, atmospheric movement, etc. I've seen pictures, these are some great high quality images with 3D detail that are great screensaver material. But, for the love of science, when do we get the rest of the data from the mission -- you know, the stuff that is, like, going to alter the way we view Mars? Is the public never going to see these results?

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

But, for the love of science, when do we get the rest of the data from the mission -- you know, the stuff that is, like, going to alter the way we view Mars? Is the public never going to see these results?

You want the truth? You can't handle the truth...

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[mustafap]

> (that's a rough translation from European).

Thats a very broad brush :o)

Go on, say something in European.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

Go on, say something in European.

I was being facetious (afterall, what one language does the ESA represent) but if there's one thing I like, it's a joke drawn out far too long.

So here it goes, I'm going to say something in European:

"Yo haß George W. Buisson."

There, how was that? :-)

OT eldavojohn

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[giorgiofr]

haße, haße...

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[PopeRatzo]

I'll say something in European:

"Americans are such pigs. Can you help me get a green card?"

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[PainBot]

I speak European. And a little bit of algebra.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[rmccann]

Something else in European: "Health care for all. True multi-party democracies"

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Opportunist]

You're SO 90s. We're catching up fast with the US, just so you watch!

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Yvanhoe]

Uh? The "face on mars" only looks like a face on the 1976 Viking's photographs. There has been numerous pictures of this region at higher resolution ever since :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_on_mars

I remember the 1998 Mars Surveyor pictures. I wasn't surprise, but who can say honestly that he was not a bit disapointed ? ;-)

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[andphi]

"I hate George W.?" That's a very American thing to say, don't you think? Just add something about stolen elections or killing babies and you'll be speaking Democrat.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[AndyTheSayer]

I believe the official language of ESA is English--at least, my work involves an instrument on an ESA satellite and the official languages of the conferences and workshops they run is always English. Though the conferences themselves are often in places like Italy, which is nice.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[budgenator]

It was rather like even though you know there was no Santa Clause, finally getting the "official notice of non-existance" was a big let-down.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[radtea]

the official languages of the conferences and workshops they run is always English.

This is generally true in the sciences, and may be a result of the ESA's scientific mandate.

It makes it easier that every word is an English word: "Pukka sushi compadre" is an English sentence. That's one reason why English has so many more words than most language: we borrow words from other languages with wild abandon (and aren't very good about giving them back.)

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

> Something else in European: "Health care for all. True multi-party democracies"

"Abortions for some-- miniature American flags for others!"

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

blah blah blah la groin, blah blah blah fromage

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

Something in European?

*ahem*

"Stupid Americans!"

There you go.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[recordMyRides]

Estas bela tago.

Does Esperanto count?

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

This is all fine and good, but what I really want to see is those hi-res photos of the Great Ass of Mars...

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[mustafap]

>Does Esperanto count?

No.

Although popular with dozens of people in Europe, it's also spoke by one or two other people elsewhere. There is an esperanto internet TV station in Brazil. Last time I checked, Brazil wasn't part of the Europe mainland ( in the same way that the UK isn't )

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[sjs132]

I've seen pictures, these are some great high quality images with 3D detail that are great screensaver material. Actually, I think it would make some great MAPS for FPS's.. Think about SOFII on the FACE... Drop the G's really low so you can float/jump, etc. Maybe Capture the Flag. I'd love to snipe someone from the top as they make their way up. Hmmm...

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[anno1602]

"hasse", not "haße"

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[recordMyRides]

Well, yes, you are right. I was trying to make a joke.

But the argument that it isn't 'European' because it is also popular elsewhere? Thats a little weak. . .

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[SevenHands]

There's no Santa Claus? Care to explain where my Christmas presents come from? And who eats those milk and cookies I leave out every christmas eve?

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[MrLizard]

>Go on, say something in European.

"Le Americans, they steenk!"
"By yiminy, ve surrender!"

How's that? I know I have a bit of an accent, but I think I can be understood.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Englabenny]

esa has two official languages, French and English. It also seems like they prefer people with a little bit of both; many of the main locations of ESA operations are in France.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

Euro.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[geekoid]

No matter where your from, if you are in the bathroom, your a peein'.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Chris Mattern]

> There is an esperanto internet TV station in Brazil.

Well, you know that that's a bitch.

Chris Mattern

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[MadEE]

Here you go: Top left

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[severoon]

Yea, thirty years would never have been allowed to elapse between photo shoots if it were, say, a naked lady.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[soft_guy]

I thought Japan had the highest suicide rate?

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's not just Americans that hate him. Everyone does.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[ceoyoyo]

We don't borrow, we trade. We take regular words and in exchange we give swear words.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[andphi]

That was my point. Hating or bashing GW seems like a popular pastime the world over.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Zaphod2016]

Duh. Hershel the Chanukah Racoon.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[budgenator]

Oh no I said Santa Clause, the Tim Allen Character not Santa Claus, the chubby guy from the north pole who leaves presents and eat cookie, you must think I'm stupid or something.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[ShawnDoc]

This hasn't stopped the Enterprise Mission people from claiming conspiracy and that it is indeed still a face. Their web page is hilarious. One of the most recent articles has scans from a 1950's era Jack Kirby comic that featured a giant face on Mars as "proof" we knew about the face years ago, and that someone must have "leaked" the story to Jack Kirby. Too much fun.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[garlicbready]

How about Aluminium?

European "All-you-min-yum" (proper way of saying it)
American "Al-loo-min-um"
As in Jee Willikers that's some good Aloominum Side-eings Billy

<Northern Brittish Accent>
I don't know, Americans aught to talk proper, like what we does
</Northern Brittish Accent>

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Nuskrad]

Euro-English - because we wouldn't want to be speaking German!

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[PresidentEnder]

"Haße" soll nicht "hasse" werden!
Stand against forced spelling reform!
That is all.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[k1773re7f]

What???? No Santa Clause!?!?! I was wantin' A PS3 for Christmas, DAMNIT!

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

Aye, the majority of the world, and majority of the U.S.
Funny, that.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

Vera. Sub tia logiko, FUTBOLO ne estas euxropa.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[david.given]

...we borrow words from other languages with wild abandon (and aren't very good about giving them back.)...

Borrow? Hardly --- English sneaks up behind other languages in dark alleys and whacks them on the head with a cosh!

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[iamlucky13]

But, for the love of science, when do we get the rest of the data from the mission -- you know, the stuff that is, like, going to alter the way we view Mars? Is the public never going to see these results?

First off, I debate the implication that pictures of the surface have no value. There is a reason why almost every space probe we've launced bothers with the bulk and weight of at least some sort of camera, much less a big one. At the very least, visible light is the format our eyes are used to looking at and good for picking out spots of interest based on geometry, color, and shadowing. Things as mundane as color can differentiate types of rock, for example, and apparent texture yields clues as to the degree of weathering that occurs in a location (ie, how the atmosphere affects the surface, from your post). Also, if I understand right, the stereo cameras on the Express give them the ability to create a 3-D map of the surface, so simultaneously they're getting topography data (certainly that has value, although I don't know what large scale errors might be inherent to the method) without the added weight/power requirement of a radar.

Besides, far infrared, microwave, x-ray, or broadband spectrometers are not magic. They only give us details that visible light doesn't. What you use depends on what you're looking for.

Secondly, if you want to see all the data returned from the mission, you probably aren't going to find it on the ESA public website. There's a lot of data. Gigabytes so far if I understand right. Even the extremely well-published Mars rovers, the hyper-photo-active darlings of NASA, only have data from the visible/near-visible light instruments posted regularly. I think if you want any really comprehensive set of data, especially raw data, you need to formally request it.

Also, related to the last point, I've heard the ESA is somewhat protective of their data. Not surprisingly, since their tax money built the Express, they probably want to give their scientists the first crack at interpreting it and publishing the papers that will change the way we view Mars.

Anyway, you may have already seen it, but here is a pile of Mars Express-related images from ESA. It looks to me like a lot of them are screenshots of textured 3-D models based on multiple exposures.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[pnewhook]

Something else in European: "Health care for all. True multi-party democracies"

I think that was Canadian..

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, brit jackass, it's actually *spelled* "aluminum" (no second 'i') on our side of the pond. This just in - we also spell color differently (you spell it "colour"). In other news, we say "elevator" where you say "lift", and we say "truck" where you "lorry." Good thing we kicked your sad, tea drinking asses out back in the day (translation: "Good job we gave you sorry, tea bibbing lot the boot ages ago").

Here's what you don't get - english *used* to be your language. It's ours now. Deal.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

But why, old chap? Are we plaing cards?

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[mike2R]

heh, I think the original is:

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

hasse with ß is incorrect under both old and reformed spelling.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[StikyPad]

That's one reason why English has so many more words than most language: we borrow words from other languages with wild abandon (and aren't very good about giving them back.)

Yes and no.. While English does borrow a lot of words, almost half of English words are scientific, not borrowed in the fajita/beau/sayonara sense. Further, most of the words are "borrowed" from dead languages. The sort of words you're talking about comprise a very small portion of English, as seen below.

It is very hard to make this estimate, particularly as many words reached English, for example, from Latin by way of Norman French. However, the result of a computerized survey of roughly 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd edition) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973). They reckoned the proportions as follows:

        * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24%
        * French, including Old French and early Anglo-French: 28.3%
        * Old and Middle English, Old Norse, and Dutch: 25%
        * Greek: 5.32%
        * No etymology given: 4.03%
        * Derived from proper names: 3.28%
        * All other languages contributed less than 1%
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/abouten glish/proportion?view=uk

Further, it's difficult to define "a lot of words" in a relative sense, since it's near-impossible to count the number of words in a given language.

Re:Primary Goal of the Mission

[idkk]

Er, no, actually ... it still is "our" language (I speak as an Englishman), not yours. You are describing a language whose proper name is "American", which for some reasons of historical confusion is called in American "English". In England we speak a language which we call, in English "English". You will have to tell me what our, primary, English is called in American as I do not speak that tongue.
FYI More people in the world speak (British) English than speak (American) English. If you doubt this, you have forgotten China.

Well Done

[seven7h]

I would like to send a congratulations to the team and NASA. I know that for most of us (myself included) this is an exciting moment, as we can now study this face in depth even more, just what I always wanted. Bt seriously you would think that there would be better stuff on mars that they could be studying with the rover than the 'face'

Re:Well Done

[Xiroth]

...I really hope this is a joke. Otherwise, try reading at least the first sentence of the summary. Here's a hint: the ESA isn't part of NASA.

Re:Well Done

[LiquidCoooled]

Firstly, this is done by ESA (European Space Agency) and is not a NASA mission.

Secondly, its an orbiting space platform and has nothing to do with rovers (unless you mean the ill fated Beagle 2 which was carried on this mission).

But having corrected all that, you are right its a job well done.

They're still busy...

[Anonymous Coward]

...talking to the Martians about the cost of acquiring the rights to release that material.

Re:They're still busy...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you imagine the eyes as boobs, the nose as a dick, and the mouth as a ballsac, it looks like the abdomen of a woman getting tittyfucked.

Or maybe it's four testes. Some bizarre martian genitalia for cumming out of multiple phalluses. Martian orgies, anyone?

-la crema de la mierda

Re:They're still busy...

[Hal_Porter]

I never realised before that it was possible to fail a Rorschach test.

A face huh?

[celardore]

If that's meant to look like a face, it's a hella ugly one.

Re:A face huh?

[NeoTron]

To me it looks more like an island, and the sea around it has gone...

What strikes me about the pictures from the Mars Express is how weird they look - they look kind of artificial - like they've been hand-drawn/painted by a 1950's space artist. They don't look like a picture if you nkow what I'm trying to say. The colours are very "rich" and unreal looking - difficult to explain - it might be a result of the prcoessing they've gone through.

Re:A face huh?

[bigattichouse]

As if they originated on an alien world? Minus a blue sky, lighting is much different.

Re:A face huh?

[NeoTron]

Yes I do realise that, thank you :)

But take a look at http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/marsexpress/30 8-230906-3253-6-3d2-Cydonia_H.jpg and you'll see what I'm talking about. What I think they've done is really enhance the contrast of the picture. The colouring still reminds me of old 1950's style drawings of craters and the like.

I wasn't trying to imply the pictures are fake at all, by the way. :)

Re:A face huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

If that's meant to look like a face, it's a hella ugly one.

Indeed, but keep in mind that we fell in love with her in 1976 ... time hath withered her once youthful looks.

Send a nuke, give 'er a nose job.

Re:A face huh?

[Himring]

Yes, but it has a good body. You just can't see it....

Re:A face huh?

[vhogemann]

I'm just guessing, but, they look like 3D renders from the surface.

Since the other pictures are anaglyphs (the sort of image that looks 3D when you use that red-blue 3D glasses), one can guess that they already processed the images to extract topological info... So a 3D render, to examine Mars surface details, seems logical to me.

Re:A face huh?

[saider]

From the FAQ...

Yes, the images have been processed but that is quite normal. We are not taking colour photographs, we have to combine the different colour channels which requires processing time. Each of the four colour channels operate with a filter of different wavelength (red, green, blue and infrared) and produce data sets which have to be combined and calculated on to a digital elevation model.

Re:A face huh?

[imsabbel]

Well, thats easy.
The original source is multiple band photographs and height information.
As the "top down" view cannot really present that information, those are renderings using the height-field and texture data the probe collected.

Re:A face huh?

[sk8king]

It looks like a scene out of Starcraft or something. It does have that fabricated look, which is probably a result of photoshop brightness/colour/contrast editing as you suggested.

Re:A face huh?

[dr_dank]

Look at the title of the article; thats why it's getting a makeover.

The upcoming Queer Eye for the Red Planet Probe is going to use an eyebrow plucking robot and deploy an "chic hat" so it can be the hip, modern face of Mars.

Re:A face huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

just like your momma

Re:A face huh?

[An Onerous Coward]

It's almost as though the pictures taken after 1970 have been... dare we say it... altered somehow?

Nah. Not OUR governments. They'd never lie about something like that.

Maybe I'll feel less trusting when my tinfoil hat gets back from the cleaners.

Re:A face huh?

[bigjocker]

That's because you are linking to a *computer generated 3D image*. Try reading before posting. They generated that image from the data gathered by the Mars Express. It's not a photo, it's a computer renderization using as input the 3D data.

Re:A face huh?

[gfxguy]

Didn't you hear the news? Tinfoil hats AMPLIFY their ability to read your mind.

Re:A face huh?

[It'sYerMam]

Yes but the actual colours are supposed to have originated on Mars itself, not just pulled out of a technician's ass.

Re:A face huh?

[mikael]

I've seen that done with the photographs in online property guides. It's rather funny to see the properties in your locality in super-saturated Disney technicolor with forest green trees, rich prairie green grass, deep electric blue skies, and sunlit Mediterranean whitewashed walls.

Re:A face huh?

[Magic5Ball]

The actual colours are time of day/year dependent and likely contain IR, UV and other components that are not well represented with consumer monitors or JPEGs.

Re:A face huh?

[Dun Malg]

Yes but the actual colours are supposed to have originated on Mars itself, not just pulled out of a technician's ass.

What color should it be? The color you would see if you were standing on the martian surface, or the color the camera sees? The color the martian surface would have if it were here on the earth? Normalized for some "baseline" spectrum? Thing is, pictures are nearly always adjusted for optimal contrast and such. When scientists want to analyze the "color" of something, they don't grab a photo print and their Pantone chips and start comparing. They use spectrometers.

Re:A face huh?

[FhnuZoag]

It's an ALIEN face, duh.

Re:A face huh?

[grammar fascist]

I've had great success lately with brown paper bags. Ski masks work, too, with the added benefit that people generally do what you say when you wear them.

Re:A face huh?

[Hal_Porter]

Do you think your appearance is pleasing to us, human?

Re:A face huh?

[LouisZepher]

I've been saying this for years. But, you know these young kids these days. No experience with rabbit-ear modification and what not.

Re:A face huh?

[caseih]

Actually it appears that in the absence of dust storms, the color of the sky on Mars is, in fact, blue, much like earth's. In some pictures I've seen, you might mistake the martian landscape for Arizona!

http://mars-news.de/life/

and

http://mars-news.de/color/blue.html

Although take it all with a grain of salt. There are good arguments for and against the blue sky. The JPL, unfortunately has never put forth a lot of convincing proof for the red sky, fueling this debate further.

Re:A face huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Come on, no one can look good THAT up close!

You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[p51d007]

I doubt it......the Roswell types will say that the image was doctored to distort the truth bla bla bla. It is a formation of ROCKS....period. Same as the "old man on the mountain" in Georgia. Heck, as a kid, you ever see "things" in clouds?

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[donaggie03]

It doesn't help that most of the pictures don't look real; they look rendered. Badly, at that.

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[iogan]

Why would it need to be doctored? These pictures look EVEN MORE like a face than the original ones that got everyone interested in it in the first place, not to mention a FUCKLOAD more than the later ones released to quiet the "conspiracy nuts".

Although I'm also inclined to believe it is simply rock formations, saying this will shut up the people who saw a face the last time around is just naive.

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[Jimbookis]

Oh yeah, I can't wait to see what Richard Hoagland makes of this!

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[DrXym]

Yes, but Richard Hoagland wouldn't sell any books if he just said it was just a rock formation. No, it's a CONSPIRACY and will be as long as there are people stupid enough to believe him.

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[will_die]

Old man of the mountain, of US State quarter fame, is New Hampshire. Well until it got blown up.

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[starseeker]

There is no evidence that will quiet those people. Any contradiction to their already formed conclusion will simply be part of the "conspiracy".

It's the same with anyone who has already made their decision without the need for evidence - more evidence doesn't do a thing to them.

I have a feeling you could take some of those people who think NASA faked the moon landing to the moon IN PERSON and they would still conclude that it's an externally imposed delusion, because they are starting from the basic premise that they are right. Facts will need to fit that preconception. Same thing here.

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[Anonymous Coward]

You didn't know that NASA built a fake moon to fool people did you? I'll show it to you right after I get off of fake Earth

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[cyclomedia]

the fake earth having been used to show tv images of a round earth instead of the actual flat one

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[Vexorian]

It doesn't seem like a rocks formation but like some erosion caused by water, it actually seems like sand to me.

But I must say that if there was a face, after all the natural phenomenon in mars it would look like this thing. Also many of the `conspiracy nuts would simply mention that the Nasca drawings don't look at all like drawings when you look too close. So for them the case would be the same for the face

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[bxbaser]

Damn oprah she was the mastermind behind that.

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[Anonymous Coward]

I still see 'things' in clouds.

Water vapor, color bands ...

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[Zzesers92]

Actually, quieting the conspiracy nuts is only cursory to what we really need to learn from this. And that is...

If the human race is ever going to be wiped out in a non-solar-system-destroying catastrophe, we better NOT build a monument that looks like a face because psychologists of the future will say a face is too engrained in the psyche. What huge monument should we leave to prove we existed that might survive millions of years of erosion and wouldn't be scoffed at by future races?

Zzrs

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[IorDMUX]

Uh... wasn't the Old Man in the Mountain in New Hampsire?

Sadly, he's gone now. Erosion and nature, rather than aliens, took the famous face in the rocks away from us in May of 2003.

Side note: I was there just months before it fell. Yeah, it bore a resemblanec to a face, but only from the right angle. Otherwise, it looks like rocks... Much like Mars's well-renowned face, but significantly more temporary.

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean the same people who believe the trip to the moon was fake and also stand behind Buzz when he claimed he saw aliens there??? How can someone support a claim like that when they don't believe he was there in the first place? If we had time to give everyone in the world a psychoanalysis the cities would be very empty because a lot of the people would be committed. The truth is like a spoon and there is no spoon! So, start using a spork!

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[Liquid Len]

Right. It's usually very difficult to have the general public (I mean everyday people, not your typical /. nerd) listen to sound arguments, even backed up by scientific evidences. Thing is, those are usually way less sexy than theories involving conspiracies, freemasons and whatnot spread by nutjobs. Also, journalists are interested in sensational stuff to reach the broadest audience and tend to favor ridiculous theories over rational (= boring, oftentimes) explanations. Kind of a deadlock.

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean the same people who believe the trip to the moon was fake and also stand behind Buzz when he claimed he saw aliens there???

You're a coward and a liar and a thief! Ouch...

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[gardyloo]

Sadly, he's gone now. Erosion and nature, rather than aliens, took the famous face in the rocks away from us in May of 2003.

Side note: I was there just months before it fell.

      Oh, you were, were you? Perhaps we need a little *security* around here, if people like you are going to use psionics to wreck our famous national-treasures-if-you-look-at-'em-from-the-rig ht-angle-in-the-right-light.

      ROSSSSWEELLLLLLLLLLLL!!!

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[Anonymous Coward]

A giant, badass aluminum cube. REALLY big, with a whole bunch of big mathy symbols machined into each side.

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[timholman]

There is no evidence that will quiet those people. Any contradiction to their already formed conclusion will simply be part of the "conspiracy".

Anyone with a few minutes to waste (and I do mean waste) can browse Richard Hoagland's web site (enterprisemission.com) and see just how true this statement is.

Twenty years ago, before high-resolution photos of Mars were available, Hoagland got a lot of mileage out of the low-res Cydonia photos. I remember that he even wrote a couple of fairly serious speculative articles about Cydonia that were published in Analog magazine. After the high-res images became available, and it became obvious that the "face" was nothing of the sort, Hoagland went completely off the deep end, and now claims that the surface of Mars is literally covered with artifacts, i.e. "rocks" to the non-believers. Hoagland will show image after image of a random rock on the surface of Mars and proclaim that this rock is clearly artificial, that NASA is denying the obvious truth, etcetera, etcetera.

The beauty of being delusional is that you can find any pattern you want in random images or data, provided you decide to pick and choose what parts of the image/data to disregard. However, in Hoagland's case it's probably less a matter of being delusional than a case of wanting to maintain his revenue stream from the True Believers.

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[Cisko Kid]

This will never quiet people like Hogland. They will always have something to say no matter what facts you present to them.

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[tableplay]

More likely they'll say that the image was only meant to be seen from afar (IOW they'll say the supposed builders of the face made it to look like a face if viewed from further off in space and that, if they just made it like a face it would not look like one viewed from far away;i.e. kind of like how in a house of mirrors an object that actually is distorted looks normal in the distorted mirror) - not with a high-res camera which simulates being close-up to the face. But yeah, they'll figure something out . . .

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[treeves]

I didn't know about "The Old Man in the Mountain" in GA, but there *was* one in NH.
I saw it in person back in the late 1980s. They even put it on their state quarter. Then the darn thing went and fell off the mountain!
(Either that or government agents blew it up to hide from the public the fact that it was carved by aliens! "East of the Rockies, you're on the air with Art Bell!)

Re:You think this will quiet the conspiracy nuts?

[Anonymous Coward]

I came across Hoagland a couple years ago. He ignited my imagination (OMG! What if he's right!). I try to be open minded. He does have a wild imagination and loves to promote wild speculation (Just wait my public! I have astounding evidence that will knock your socks off and I will post it soon! Buy my DVDs!). And then he runs off to the next thing. He did have a few interesting things on his site. Did you see that "artist rendition" of the "Face On Mars"? Quite a contrast to the latest ESA photos. If you take it as entertainment. But he really had me yawning when I found his evidence of alien artifacts... There's several things that look sort of odd, but the detail isn't in the photo to know exactly what.

Did you see that movie "A Scanner Darkly"? In the beginning the character is covered in bugs and has to constantly scratch, wash, and spray bug killer on himself. He collects evidence of these bugs existence and puts them in a jar to show someone as proof these bugs are real. Then they look at the jar and it's just an empty jar? I haven't paid much attention to Hoagland in the last year, but he has me feeling sort of like that.

BTW, and I really am appauled that everyone has missed this. Shame on you all! Not only is there the famous face, and not only is there as someone purports, a mickeymouse, but seriously, if you look, there is a skull on Mars. Even more proof! A weathered face, when mirrored is a pregnant lion headed woman, proof of the connection between the monuments at Giza and Mars... But now there is a skull!

Oh there was one more thing, someone noted there is a lot of water on Mars, like frozen subsurfaces seas, detected by ESA. And I recall Hoagland was claiming that as a victory for one of his predictions, the Mars Tidal Force Theory or something. I was too lazy to really investigate it. Sorry, but I thought in fairness, if he got something right then give the man some credit.

Here's looking at you kid

[Anonymous Coward]

We look at other planets. They look back. :)

interesting

[joe 155]

This is the first time I've heard anything about this in ages. It looks so much like a humanoid face, more so than I tought it did the last time I saw these pictures. It would be nice if this proved that there were aliens on mars, but this proves the opposite, this is because if there were aliens which could sculpt something to look like that at that size then they would that be the only thing that they would have left and/or why hide when we take photos? (I know of the big stone ass of mars, but that's all the way on the other side ; )

Other than that I wish that they would start to use missions about/to mars to prepare for when we first go, and hopefully for eventual terra-forming.

However they analyze it

[tbone1]

I still say it looks like Al Gore.

Re:However they analyze it

[include($dysmas)]

yeah, he probably built it.

Re:However they analyze it

[Anonymous Coward]

nah, the one on Mars looks way more expressive.

Re:However they analyze it

[smackt4rd]

This one kinda looks like a ninja! http://www.esa.int/images/309-230906-3253-6-3d3-Cy donia_L.jpg

Re:However they analyze it

[LordAbraxsis]

Well of course it looks like Al Gore, didnt you know he invented Mars?

Re:However they analyze it

[grammar fascist]

Next you'll tell me that Mars is made of tubes.

What face?

[Anonymous Coward]

Either I'm missing it or martian faces are anatomically distict from the faces of human kind (and that of president Bush). Can somebody please do a redline?

Re:What face?

[Zaatxe]

The face looks like Cornelius from Planet of the Apes (1968). It's more like a chimp face than a human face. Maybe when the martians made us this homage, there were only Australopithecus afarensis on Earth...

But if we were jellyfish-like creatures, we probably wouldn't notice it, instead we would notice the round formations that would look like our heads. Like meteorite craters.

Taking all Bets...

[Veetox]

Let's have a poll: Who's going to be the most popular choice for canonization in the R.C. Church according to this depiction?

Re:Taking all Bets...

[indifferent children]

Liebowitz.

It's human nature...

[ThomsonsPier]

...to find familiar shapes in things. People see Jesus on their toast. It's not indicative of anything except the human ego and the desire to understand things about which we know little or nothing.

That said, I find the pictures fascinating and look forward to viewing the available images in more detail when I have a chance. The 'face' itself looks more like a skull in high resolution. Wait a minute... a human skull? They're gonna kill us all!

Re:It's human nature...

[chrismcdirty]

OH NO! Killer giants on Mars! Run for your life!

Re:It's human nature...

[peragrin]

My two thoughts.

1) that really does bear striking resemblence to a face. Not perfect but just an odd rock formation.

2) where are the other mountians? It's like hiawii. a (mostly)lonely mountian in a sea of flat. While there is precendant it is an oddity.

Re:It's human nature...

[thesandtiger]

When looked at from a particular angle, with particular lighting, then yes, it can look like a human face. But pictures shown from other angles or with different lighting don't look anything like a human face.

Heck, if you get the lighting right and go from just-so an angle, even Keith Richards seems to have a human face.

Re:It's human nature...

[An Onerous Coward]

Heck, if you get the lighting right and go from just-so an angle, even Keith Richards seems to have a human face.

I defy you to find a single photograph that backs up this statement.

Re:It's human nature...

[blindbug]

Heck, if you get the lighting right and go from just-so an angle, even Keith Richards seems to have a human face.

I guess that's more than we can say about Wacko Jacko...

Re:It's human nature...

[peragrin]

Yes but is there hope for Micheal Jackson to ever have a human face?

Re:It's human nature...

[devnulljapan]

...seeing in their toast you say. Non-believer - how about this for evidence. FSM be praised.

Noooooooo!!!11eleven1!

[ZaMoose]

This sort of information could be a death blow to conspiracy theories and the end of wild speculation as to the face's true origins and thus keep movies like John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars, Red Planet and Mission to Mars from being made!

Oh wait, that's a good thing.

Errrm, nevermind.

Re:Noooooooo!!!11eleven1!

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know what pictures you looked at but I can almost see the chisel marks!

The "other" face on Mars

[ribuck]

I like the "other" face on Mars better. It's a crater with rocks shaped like eyes and a smile: http://roger-browne.com/weblog/2006/03/17/google-m ars-and-the-happy-face/

Re:The "other" face on Mars

[Mark J Tilford]

Did anybody else see that image and think about Watchmen? Except that it's a mirror image.

Re:The "other" face on Mars

[Ginnungagap42]

What can I say but "Have A Nice Day!" : )

Today's vocabulary word is "pareidolia"

[greg1104]

See http://www.skepdic.com/pareidol.html for a definition. A commentary on this particular image (along with some wicked cool visual illusions) is at http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/fcs_face_on_mars/inde x.html

Please excuse me, I have to return to searching my toast for the Virgin Mary now.

Re:Today's vocabulary word is "pareidolia"

[Opportunist]

Well, there is God in my toast. I'm sure of that. And it's even in the bible, it says there that God is in all things.

QED!

Re:Today's vocabulary word is "pareidolia"

[rubycodez]

it does? book, chapter and verse? unless you're pulling Deuteronomy 4:7 out of context.....

Not just on Mars

[piggywig]

Yawn. Seen it all before. There are some conspiracy nutters who think theres something like that here on earth too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore.

Other cool facts about the mission

[YA_Python_dev]

Mars Express contains 7 different scientific instruments and, amongs other things, it has already:

• discovered aurorae on Mars;
• transmitted back gigabytes of beautiful images with a resolution of up to 2 meters/pixel;
• discovered a huge subsurface water ice lake, with a thickness of 1.8 km and an extension of hundreds of kms;
• collaborated with NASA, receiving data from the Mars rovers and transmitting it back to Earth (yes: they use the same communication protocol!).

Re:Other cool facts about the mission

[Anonymous Coward]

with a resolution of up to 2 meters/pixel

Isn't that better expressed as down to 2 meters/pixel ?

Re: Other cool facts about the mission

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you'd better re-read that water-ice lake news. The first contact they mention is the surface of the polar deposit, the second contact is the base of the deposit. They are just confirming that the polar ice is nearly pure water ice, with very little CO2 ice content. There's no lake involved.

Re:Other cool facts about the mission

[grammar fascist]

collaborated with NASA, receiving data from the Mars rovers and transmitting it back to Earth (yes: they use the same communication protocol!).

The amazing thing is that the European orbiter speaks the protocol using metric bits while our rovers use imperial bits! Once they discovered the error, NASA boffins were able to retrofit the rover code remotely using Java.

I don't know why we still stick to the imperial system - our bits are 2.54 times longer, which reduces bandwidth considerably.

Re:Other cool facts about the mission

[jafac]

, receiving data from the Mars rovers and transmitting it back to Earth (yes: they use the same communication protocol!).

No they don't.

The english units sent by the mars rovers are encapsulated in metric units, and converted back on earth. /snark

Re:Other cool facts about the mission

[alcmaeon]

discovered aurorae on Mars;

Did anyone besides me find the weird parallel cracks on the extreme right side of the picture in the middle more intersting than the lame-assed aurorae?

Hey

[cubicledrone]

Look at that. A new Mars icon. That's cool. Wait... Wait a minute... Is that.. is that ICE? ICE ON MARS?? THERE'S WATER ON MARS??!?!?!?!!? WE REALLY DID EVOLVE FROM THE CRUD AROUND THE LAWN SPRINKLERS BEW HEW HEW HEW HEW HEW HEW.

Yes folks, if you leave a big pile of compost outdoors long enough, it will turn into a self-focusing optical device connected to a gigantic interconnected system of neurons capable of inventing a digital watch. Thank you.

That's no face...

[Anonymous Coward]

Look closely at this image of cydonia. Now look closely at the torso on this image, that's proof positive that intelligent aliens with hyperdrive technology have travelled through this galaxy. For the doubters, here's a larger image. I just can't believe that world governments have managed to keep the truth covered up for so long!

The world needs to know!

Re:That's no face...

[Anonymous Coward]

Now look at this photo and you'll see what else these aliens left behind for us. How Walt managed to pass off Mickey Mouse as his own creation for all these years, I'll never know.

Link to the old, low-res version

[PeeAitchPee]

In case of slashdotting: :-o

Re:Link to the old, low-res version

[thesandtiger]

No need for that, here's an ultra-low-rez image embedded directly into this post:

8^)

Not the only face on mars!

[Anonymous Coward]

What about the "other" face on mars-- the happy crater! It's much more clearly a face than that pesky cydonian mesa. http://www.msss.com/education/happy_face/happy_fac e.html

Google?

[DoChEx]

So when are they releasing Google Mars?

Re:Google?

[DoChEx]

Never mind I just found it: http://www.google.com/mars/#lat=-50.903032&lon=-30 .981445&zoom=6&map=visible

Re:This is not moronic

[Anonymous Coward]

It was proved by the high resolution Mars Global Surveyor images. Another set of high resolution images isn't going to convince those who don't want to be convinced. I'm sure the people will also want 0.3 m resolution high resolution images from HiRISE on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as well. Heck we'll probably have to take high resolution images on some future probe down to micrometer resolution eventually. What a waste of time!

Face of Marx, Sphinx and the lion

[pixelised]

I'm sure many of you are aware that if you mirror one side of the face you end up with the face of the Sphinx and the other will look like a lion's face. I've always wondered about this, but for years we only had low quality image. Now there's decent quality images of the face of Mars and with some manipulation with Gimp I've mirrored both sides of the face. http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8384/faceonmars 2gn2.png http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/3146/faceonmars3p f6.png Kudos to ESA.

Re:Face of Marx, Sphinx and the lion

[BiggerIsBetter]

Sphinx? I reckon it looks more like a chimp...

Re:Face of Marx, Sphinx and the lion

[Anonymous Coward]

"looks more like a chimp"

Cripes, does Bush have family EVERYWHERE?

Just think of it

[zoomshorts]

Just think of the 'face on Mars' as a huge Moa, like those on Easter Island.
Then imagine a billion years worth of erosion. It is not that far fetched.

Re:Just think of it

[Digital Vomit]

I was thinking the same thing. It still looks like it could be an artificial structure that has been weather be erosion and possibly suffered a structural collapse (or was exposed to a powerful explosion) on one side. It still has an oddly shaped bilateral symmetry, straight lines, and still does look like a[n] (alien?) face.

I'm not saying that's what I think it is, I'm just saying the case is definately not closed. It won't be closed until we actually land people there and investigate closely.

Still, there it is something of a romantic idea: the possibility of a long dead ancient race on a neightboring planet. It would be pretty cool if it were true.

Re:Just think of it

[Anonymous Coward]

Er... doesn't erosion require an atmosphere? I suppose micro-meteors could have cut away at it, but even so, it's clear that the 30 year-old picture was just the result of coincidental lighting. The eye was a shadow from a tall ridge, not an ACTUAL hole. Same with the mouth. From any other angle, with any other lighting, you can see that it never was a face.

photoshop here we come

[rucs_hack]

I give it a week at most before the ufo/alien/conspiracy crowd produce their own 'optimised/cleaned up' version of these images that reveal not only the face, but the scaffolding left over from the aliens who built it, and the fossilised remains of their packed lunches.

I recall that some nut managed to 'decifer' an entire city region buried around the so called face.

I remember the very first time this image appeared (yes, I'm that old), there was a very interesting comment in the magazine at the time, being 'if you turn this image of a mountain in partial shadow around, you can make it look like a face'. It was meant as a joke at the time.

It amused me to see the ever more detailed pictures appearing over the years, improving as image manipulation methods for joe public improved. Some even had eyebrows.

All that said, these are very nice pictures, social context aside. I'm still amazed by the fact that we can get images from the surface of mars at all.

Re:photoshop here we come

[pixelised]

Check my Gimp job above your comment. ;)

If you see the images, it's not joke that they look strikingly like a Sphinx face and a lions face. Creepy.

Re:photoshop here we come

[rucs_hack]

the lion ones makes me think of some wird thing in the clouds saying 'simba...'

The Arlia are gonna be awfully mad...

[jimstapleton]

We managed to get photographs of Aspasia's base... Oh no! They are gonna kill us all!

(It's a book reference, just curious how many on /. will get it)

Re:The Arlia are gonna be awfully mad...

[Phiu-x]

Apparently no one

Re:Relgious take on it...

[tttonyyy]

When our craft so much as approached Mars, we got devastating wars. Now we dared to look the God of War in the face -- better start preparing for another World War, brought upon us by NASA -- the hitherto deemed benevolent arm of the American war-mongering government.

NASA - the hitherto deemed purveyor of all things space, to the exclusion of all other space agencies.

Suggestion to RTFA. Oh wait, slashdot. Ability to read not required.

Those rovers better deliver

[antifoidulus]

some oversized oxy pads to our friend....

Re:Relgious take on it...

[Mr2cents]

Ok, that's the second person who thinks Mars Express is a NASA probe... unbelievable!

There are many faces on Earth too

[mrcgran]

For instance, see this one in Peru:

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-16.341133,-71.9652 69&spn=0.155239,0.240704&t=k&hl=en

Re:There are many faces on Earth too

[Alien54]

see this one in Peru:

This doesn't show up in Nasa's World Wind program, so either it's an accident of smoke, etc from a fire or something, or else NASA didn't get a chance to manipulate all of the photos

Re:There are many faces on Earth too

[gmiley]

Well at just first glance I would say that that particular area, being on the lower slope of a mountain side, and having signs of frequent water run-off, is subject to frequent change. I am not immediately sure how often Google (DigitalGlobe, TerraMetrics) updates their satellite images, not am I sure how often the NASA's World Wind program updates their (actually I've never looked at the NASA yet, I'll check that out later)... well I'm starting to wander with this post. My point is the area where this image is appears to undergo frequent change. So this could be here in some photos and gone in others. Interesting nonetheless, think I might look into it more actually.

Re:There are many faces on Earth too

[gmiley]

I downloaded the NASA program and checked it out, if you enable NLT Landsat7 (Pseudo Color) mode you can clearly see this face.

Re:There are many faces on Earth too

[Anonymous Coward]

For instance, see this one in Peru:

Be funny if we found out that this one was actually manmade.

Re:There are many faces on Earth too

[Alien54]

note that different display options are different dates, so it depends on which you use. - Also NASA World Wind has the moon, mars, jupiter, and more for display options... kinda cool

I think it looks like...

[SoundGuyNoise]

The last photo of the "Mars Face" makes it kinda look like Abe Lincoln to me.

It's obviously a face

[DavidHumus]

What's wrong with you people?

Are we even looking at the same picture?

Look, on the near side is the chin, up from there is the nose, up from there are the other two noses and to the right of these is the telepathy patch.

You people are just too cynical for your own good.

Richard Hoagland... explain this one

[Anonymous Coward]

It will be hilarious to hear the excuses Martian civilization expert, Richard C. Hoagland, close personal friend of Walter Cronkite and close personal friend of "Carl" will have to explain how this still really is a remnant of a past Martian civilization.

For more of his "solid science" you gotta see http://enterprisemission.com/ and be sure to buy his DVDs. :)/not

Re:Richard Hoagland... explain this one

[ledow]

Ah, pseudo-science posing as "the hidden truth". One of the best entertainments around.

Dr Who knows

[Rob T Firefly]

The Iccccce Warriorssssss will not be pleassssssed.....

(Oh bite me, everyone else got in their scifi refs.)

Re:Dr Who knows

[JackHolloway]

Ah, Thank you Doctor!

I was going to say that myself...

[StressGuy]

While I'm not a conspiricy theorist and I'm fully aware that is may well just be an "interesting topographical formation", to be honest, If I saw this out in some desert region, I'd be thinking that this could be some massive sculpture that eroded over time. To be certain however, I'd want to go see it close up.

Difficult to do that when the "interesting topographical feature" is on Mars.

Again, not trying to espouse any "conspiricy theories here", but if that formation was on Earth, I'd be thinking it could be an ancient sculpture.

Re:I was going to say that myself...

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks. It is nice to still see signs of imagination and open-mindedness on Slashdot.

It's a nice change from all the "OMG tinfoil conspiracy moonbats LOLORZ!" posts.

Re:Relgious take on it...

[mi]

Ok, that's the second person who thinks Mars Express is a NASA probe... unbelievable!

I'm glad, you did not find anything else to object to... ;-)

in other news..

[treskel]

some people claim to have seen iesous(jesus, iesus, claims vary) on the very surface of earth http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&t=k&ll=-16.33701 3,-71.959763&spn=0.075447,0.113811&t=k The human mind got some imprinted patterns, christians will see what they want to see, reptile sentients will see the holy Lizard king. Nothing new under the olde sun, have a nice day

Re:Hey Digital Watches

[dean.collins]

Hey, I still say the digital watch was the greatest investion ever no matter what Al Gore says.

Dean

The images aren't easy

[oneandoneis2]

It's hard to actually work out where the "face" is on the new, high-quality images - they show a lot more area and they're not taken at the same angle. I put a post on my blog with just the part of the image that shows the face, you might find it useful for comparisons.

Lamest troll in a long time...

[Anonymous Coward]

...and it gets insightfull?..
Nowhere does it say that "the face" was a premier goal. Did you notice they didn't even use the cameras high-def settings on it? Of course you only see "regular pictures" on the ESA website. The website is not use to propagate scientifical findings for the experts involved - it's a PR thing for joe average (you). "Hey mum, pwetty picchuwes! I wants it on me desktop! Wee!" and so on... Besides a lot of info can be gathered from these "regular pictures". Watching how the mountains erode, shape, color, spectroscopy and what not...

So you want graphs of atmosperical composition and geo data? And what will you do with it?.. Aaahh.. you bore me....

THEY FOUND THAT ON MARS ???????

[bxbaser]

Holy crap thats the wierdest thing ive ever seen.
that proves there has to be life on mars thats not just some rock formation.
Thats it im stocking my celler with tons of survival supplies.

Now im really glad I didnt go to sleep and have stayed up for 48 hours straight searching for the truth on the internet to life in outer space,I could have missed that because the goverment will certainly remove those pictures FAST.
You probably in danger right now.

Re:The "other" face on Mars - more advertising

[adcm]

That's the site of the first Super Walmart on mars, they're preparing for destroying the martian economy after they ruin ours.

Re:Relgious take on it...

[budgenator]

It was the ESA, European Space Agency, the Europeans are always starting shit they can't finish, the French surrendered yesterday, yadda, yadda yadda.

hand painted results?

[Alien54]

What strikes me about the pictures from the Mars Express is how weird they look - they look kind of artificial - like they've been hand-drawn/painted by a 1950's space artist. They don't look like a picture if you nkow what I'm trying to say. The colours are very "rich" and unreal looking - difficult to explain - it might be a result of the processing they've gone through.

Now you've done it. You've given the tin foil hat crowd an excuse to say the NASA or ESA or whomever has altered the photos to erase evidence of civilizations on Mars. When in fact they probably import all of the data into a 3d model and manipulate them there to produce similar results ;-)

Long live the face

[smchris]

I hope some "national historical monument" types don't want to preserve the face in pristine glory. As the most kitsch location on the planet I'd really like to think that someday there will be dual resort and entertainment domes in the eyes.

Re:The "other" face on Mars - more advertising

[Anonymous Coward]

They already have where do you think all those low priced items come from?

Not obligatory at all

[Quiet_Desperation]

All your face belong to us.

That is all.

Life on Mars!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is definitely a proof of life on Mars!
First the face is there. Then it has moved away.
It must be a living creature!

an alternate "theory"

[MrFebtober]

the fake earth having been used to show tv images of a round earth instead of the actual flat one

Or perhaps they just used a fish-eye lens to take high altitude pictures of our very flat Earth! Yeah, that MUST be what they did!

Still looks convincingly face-like to me...

[dpbsmith]

Even in more detail and from more angles, I find it still looksat least as much like a face as the Old Man of the Mountain in New Hampshire, the image of the Virgin Mary in a fogged thermopane window in Milton Hospital, Massachusetts.

It also looks at least as much like a face as human-constructed faces that have been ravaged by time, such as the Sphinx, or Michael Jackson.

Re:Still looks convincingly face-like to me...

[Skynet]

Oh man I lol'd hard @ Michael Jackson.

Yabbut...

[Deadstick]

...the problem with looniness is that it can infect the sensible. A loon with the original "face" picture can spread the belief pretty easily. But if his target has seen the new pictures, it's gonna be a tougher sell.

rj

*after* landers defaced it...

[BenSchuarmer]

Why do you people think NASA sent probes with digging equipment to Mars?!?!

They just wanted to destroy the evidence before anybody could take new pictures!!!

The truth is up there (or it least it used to be).

Mars landing

[Liquid Len]

And you really think this is going to stop nutjobs from saying we never landed there ? Yeah, right...

The face is small potatos

[greg_barton]

http://www.google.com/mars/

Look at the pattern made by Olympus Mons and the three mountains near it.

They form an isosceles triangle. The three mountains are the base, almost equidistant from each other, in a straight line. The distance from Olympus to the middle of the three mountains is the same as the distance between the outer two of the three mountains.

Is this all due to chance?

Re:The face is small potatos

[sxtxixtxcxh]

it's very obviously intelligent design.

Re:The face is small potatos

[geekoid]

Yes.

1) human beings are programmed to see faces.
2) Yuo can find the same type of geological phenomenon here on earth.
From the Woam of the West(I think thats what she is called.) This is a formation that looks exactly like a woman wearing a dress and apron. to the "fingure for the airforce".Loking at the woman from the west from the back, it looks exactly like someone giving the fingure. If I remember correctly, you can see this while traveling on the 'Herford highway'.

3) I can find many triangles that are related to something that mean nothing.
4)we are also programmed to find patterns.

Believe me, if this was actually artificial, NASA would be all over it. I mean, could you imagine how much money they would get to get us there? Hell, if the person in charge of NASA lied and said 'yep, thats not natural' we would have been on mars 15 years ago.

Re:The face is small potatos

[greg_barton]

Hell, if the person in charge of NASA lied and said 'yep, thats not natural' we would have been on mars 15 years ago.

If the person in charge of NASA said that they'd be fired, and rightly so.

3) I can find many triangles that are related to something that mean nothing.

Yeah? Show me.

Re:The face is small potatos

[Teilo]

Shows what you know. We WERE on Mars 15 years ago. In fact, we are there now. Who do you think wipes off the solar panels on the rovers after a dust storm?

Re:The face is small potatos

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't know it is "all due to chance", so don't state it as fact.

As for your "points":

1) This has nothing to do with faces.
2) This is a mathematical, geometric relationship. Your "woman in a skirt" example is irrelevant.
3) Please present examples then.
4) So what? The fact that we recognize patterns doesn't prove that patterns are meaningless.

This pattern of mountains on Mars is astonishing. Let's look at all the "coincidences" it exhibits:

1) The "base mountains" are roughly the same size. That's actually TWO coincidences since there are three mountains.
2) They are roughly equidistance from each other. Again, that's two coincidences.
3) They are perfectly in line with each other.
4) The "point" mountain is in the right location to form a rough isoceles triangle with the base mountains.

That's six geometric coincidences by my count. Please share any natural examples that exhibit a similar amount of geometric coincidence. "This geological formation looks like a woman" is not an example of geometric coincidence.

You Maniacs! You blew it up!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

Ask the Moche People

[scotbot]

The only way we can tell for sure that these aren't articificial is actually to go there and see for ourselves. You cannot dismiss the apparently face-like features of the formation as mere tricks of the light or simulacra until you've discounted all the alternatives. As we cannot determine it's not an articificial structure from mere imagery, we have to go there and investigate in person (not that is gonna be forthcoming anytime soon).

An earthly comparison

In Peru there's a place that is dominated by huge hills which dwarf the surrounding landscape. From a far these look like any other hill in an arid desert environment. However, closer inpsection reveals them to be huge man-made pyramids which have been so badly eroded over the centuries they no longer look articificial at all. They are made of hundreds of thousands of mud bricks. But the culture which built them is no longer around.

Now, suppose they had built just one of these giant structures but in the shape of human face . Given the absence of the people who built it and of any other evidence there was anyone there to build it anyway, and having been eroded for centuries, wouldn't it now look entirely natural, and any facial resemblance entirely co-incidental. Alas, it was only by being up close that its nature was determined.

And as it is with the Pyramids of the Moche, so it is with Cydonia. We're going to have to go there and see for ourselves. We might all just be surprised.

Re:Ask the Moche People

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd agree with this.
Also, the more advanced the civilisation, the less likely they are to leave traces.

Caldwell hall, the worlds first commercial power generating nuclear reactor is being dismantled at the moment.
It's a huge thing, taking a significant proportion of the sellafield site.
Soon, it looks like all that will be left will be some of the concrete turbine supports, which are virtually underground, and too massive to be worth demolishing.

It made me wonder what someone would think in the future when they came across one of those turbine mounts.
A building's foundations? A temple? Remains of a concrete works? Part of a water works? Grain storage?

Looks like western LA suburbs

[Animats]

That looks like something in the Inland Empire area west of LA. That's a mountain range in what used to be a waterway, with the area below sea level silted up, so there are craggy hills sticking out of flat ground. The "face" is probably a similar formation - a small piece of a buried mountain range.

Re:It's human nature...not ego

[Anonymous Coward]

Just a thought: I doubt that the tendency to recognize faces is ego, so much as ingrained circuitry in the human mind, to recognize face-like objects as faces. This would be a survival characteristic for babies, I expect.

Darn!

[Nom du Keyboard]

Somebody always has to go spoil a great fantasy!

Re:Relgious take on it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you fucking nuts? Go away.

Re:No death blow...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you read G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy (available at ), one of the characteristics of insanity (and also of conspiracy theory) is that it is typically a logically closed system. That is, the insane man and the conspiracy theorist have not lost their reason.

The flaw is that their closed system is infinitesimal compared to the system that we know to be real. A person might think that all mankind is conspiring to keep him in the dark about the conspiracy. Any denials, rationally enough, can be explained as part of the conspiracy. But the interpretation of the world is just as reasonable, and far more interesting, if every man is actually interested in his own selfish persuits.

The problem with the conspiracy theorist is not lack of reason, but lack of imagination.

But for that reason, this is no death blow to the conspiracy thoerists.

Face or not a face?

[kahrytan]

It still looks like a giant face. No matter what angle it is from. And it still could be hiding a alien ship inside it and waiting for us to visit it to fill in the missing DNA sequence using sound. And maybe they will take us to their new home planet after Mars was destroyed by an asteroid. And maybe they will tell us they seeded human life on Earth before leaving Sol.

Can you name the movie reference?

Re:Face or not a face?

[Anonymous Coward]

Too easy. 'Mission To Mars'.

Personally, though, I though Elvis' face never looked better...

Aliens too

[MisterEntropy]

Anyone else see the face of the classic grey alien that was hidden by shadows in the original face-on-mars photo? In the new images, it shows up pretty clearly -- the face's mouth forms its left eye.

Things that have to be done

[rbanffy]

The Face on Mars will have to be built, perhaps by some future martians.

This, and perhaps, changing the name of the planet to Barsoom ;-)

And no, I am not kidding. If I live long enough and find a way to move to Mars, these are very interesting proposals and I would stand for them.

Re:A face huh ... after meteor impact

[pbhj]

It still looks like a face to me, just perhaps after a meteor strike.

What I find funny is that many people think that the universe has just happened by chance. Yet, the idea of a geological formation on a planet that looks like a face forming by chance is so way out.

Go figure.

People Will Really Reach

[CyberLife]

I just had a discussion with someone about these images, and they kept insisting the geology of Cydonia is unnatural looking. No matter how much I tried to get them to understand they were basing all of their views on what they knew of Earth, they just wouldn't accept the possibility that Martian geology might be different. I'm not saying they're wrong and I'm right, I'm just trying to get them to acknowledge that there are vast differences between the planets and the conditions thereon, and that said differences could account for "unnatural" looking features.

Not a face, but... buried structure?

[Anonymous Coward]

Even here on Earth, we see tall mounds of slightly angular shape... then unearth them to find pyramids and ziggurats underneath... Those renders of cydonia look very angular and the surrounding surface is mostly flat... Could they be hiding something more?

Now we know where to put the tombstone!

[Roadkills-R-Us]

Thanks, we'd been wondering where grandpa was buried...

-Hagrid

forget the stone face of mars

[rubycodez]

Leela: What about the Great Stone Ass of Mars?

mars

[lordjim81]

if any of you guys can still read actual books then i recomend The Mars Mystery by Graham Hancock, Robert Buval and some other guy. it explains why the monuments on mars (cydonia region in particular) MUST be artificial, facinating. The 'face' is possibly one of the LEAST compelling features which should shut up those of you who just want to pi** on everyone else's fire.

You're a Grosser Dummkopf and socialism sucks

[gd23ka]

There are no true multi-party democracies in Europe nor anywhere else on the planet. At best there's the inner
and the outer party. Health care for all btw means substantially poorer health care at exorbitant
mandatory membership premiums while higher income is permitted to switch to massively lower rate, high quality
private health insurance. Fuck socialism for it sucks.