Photo: NASA/JPL/UArizona
Ever since humans became aware of the fact Mars is a planet in some ways not unlike our own, their brains have been working in overdrive, imagining all sorts of incredible things about the place. Among them, faces.
That’s right, faces. For some reason, we humans seem to believe that if a civilization once existed (or visited) the Red Planet, proof of their passage can be found in remnants of structures that resemble that of a humanoid face.
The most famous such (let’s call it) structure is called exactly that, the Face on Mars. Back in the 1980s, a spacecraft called Viking 1 traveled to Mars and started snapping photos of the place. One of them showed a location on the planet that looked like an “enormous head nearly two miles from end to end.” And those are NASA’s words.
Despite scientists proving since then, it was all a trick of light and shadow in “just another Martian mesa,” the myth of the Martian face endures to this day. This is why you’ll probably forgive yourself for seeing another one in the image we have here.
Snapped by the HiRISE camera and showing a place called Ius Chasma in Vallis Marineris, the pic reveals a face tilted to the left, with two uneven eyes, with the left one boasting a long scar underneath, a small nose, and no mouth.
In reality, what we see are ridges separated by a valley, a natural feature that might have been formed as a result of some tectonic process, something that no longer happens on Mars.
“A valley also cuts across the ridge. Is this the result of some tectonic process? A study in 2012 suggested that Mars possesses tectonic plates, but if so, how these processes work is still an area of study,” scientists say about the question arising from the pic.
The most famous such (let’s call it) structure is called exactly that, the Face on Mars. Back in the 1980s, a spacecraft called Viking 1 traveled to Mars and started snapping photos of the place. One of them showed a location on the planet that looked like an “enormous head nearly two miles from end to end.” And those are NASA’s words.
Despite scientists proving since then, it was all a trick of light and shadow in “just another Martian mesa,” the myth of the Martian face endures to this day. This is why you’ll probably forgive yourself for seeing another one in the image we have here.
Snapped by the HiRISE camera and showing a place called Ius Chasma in Vallis Marineris, the pic reveals a face tilted to the left, with two uneven eyes, with the left one boasting a long scar underneath, a small nose, and no mouth.
In reality, what we see are ridges separated by a valley, a natural feature that might have been formed as a result of some tectonic process, something that no longer happens on Mars.
“A valley also cuts across the ridge. Is this the result of some tectonic process? A study in 2012 suggested that Mars possesses tectonic plates, but if so, how these processes work is still an area of study,” scientists say about the question arising from the pic.
Google News