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

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?

[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.

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:A face huh?

[bigattichouse]

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

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?

[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.