20

Is the famous image of a face on Mars a trick of the light or an artificial structure reprinting a face?

Face on Mars

Nick Stauner
  • 521
  • 2
  • 15
Richard Stelling
  • 5,694
  • 8
  • 49
  • 93
  • Unfortunately not. When you look at even the original pictures in 3D it's clearly a rock. –  Jan 20 '13 at 18:28

2 Answers2

39

No, it's just a myth. That picture had a low resolution and a particular light angle made it look like a face, but see this:

enter image description here

Here's what it looks like from the oblique: 'face' on mars

It's clearly not a face.

What the picture actually shows is the Martian equivalent of a butte or mesa -- landforms common around the American West. "It reminds me most of Middle Butte in the Snake River Plain of Idaho," says Garvin. "That's a lava dome that takes the form of an isolated mesa about the same height as the Face on Mars."

--source

BryanH
  • 103
  • 3
Sklivvz
  • 78,654
  • 29
  • 323
  • 429
28

The Face on Mars and Pareidolia

We have a habit of finding patterns were there are none (Pareidolia):

enter image description here

... with our knowledge of pareidolia, and the high resolution images provided by NASA, do you think the Face is still a face, or an optical illusion enhanced by the fact that we were originally looking at very low resolution images?

The Badlands Guardian in Alberta, Canada, discovered through "Google Earth".

enter image description here

Oliver_C
  • 47,991
  • 18
  • 214
  • 208
  • 5
    I didn't see a face in that lamp... – fredley Mar 24 '11 at 18:00
  • @fredley: in case you're being serious, the lamp isn't a face. Pareidolia isn't just for faces, it's about "seeing" anything in a picture other than what the picture is showing. The lamp is slightly more rude example - clue: legs. – TessellatingHeckler Mar 24 '11 at 21:51
  • 8
    Actually, it's not a lamp. http://ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/1042108 – anthony137 Mar 24 '11 at 23:10
  • I see an artificial structure in the "Badlands Guardian" – Nick T Mar 24 '11 at 23:47
  • @Nick T: the earphone (or oil well and track, to be more precise) were there before the aerial photograph – Henry Mar 25 '11 at 06:27
  • funny thing, if you add those to google's picasa it will probably pick all of them as a face and ask you to name them. – cregox Mar 26 '11 at 23:28