The latest is a face found by an Italian named Matteo Ianneo, who has also claimed to have found vegetation, entrances to underground tunnels and city ruins on Mars in the past few weeks. Ianneo says his latest surface find, which is located at 33°12’29.82″N and 12°55’51.21″W, looks like a picture of Mahatma Gandhi in profile.
It is reminiscent of the Face on Mars, a hill photographed by NASA’sViking 1 probe in 1976 that, in one low-resolution image, resembled a face. Within days of its discovery, space hobbyists were speculating that the structure was man-made and had been built by ancient Martians. A higher-resolution image taken of the “face” last year by NASA’s HiRISE camera revealed a rugged hill.
Humans have been seeing strange things on the surface of Mars for centuries. From the 1700s up through the present day, widespread fame has been available to anyone able to produce even the slightest bit of flimsy evidence that there’s Martian life.
The most recent example was this week’s supposed revelation that asecret Mars base, inhabited either by humans or Martians, can be seen in a photo of the Red Planet‘s surface taken by an orbiting spacecraft.
The 'X' on Mercury. And a smiley face. And a Fraggle. Pictures courtesy NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington Source: NASAThe 'Face on Mars' is actually a mesa formation. You can read all about it here / NASA Source: NASA
Sent to become the first craft to orbit Mercury – from Earth, anyway – Messenger’s successful rendezvous briefly reignited interest in the Sun‘s nearest neighbour.
Since March 30, it has sent back thousands of images from the surface, but apart from the novelty factor of the first few, most since have only been of interest to the kinds of people who waited six-and-a-half years for them.
So we’ve seen lots of craters and erosion, but then again, what did we expect from an environment exposed to
Well, yes. Because when it comes to interplanetary exploration, for some people, reason and logic will always take a back seat to unwavering hope.
Particularly since last night, when the “X on Mercury” became the new “Face on Mars“.
The intriguing image above was taken on April 24 and features an “as-yet-unnamed” crater.
With a massive “X marks the spot” through the middle of it.
It’s 116km across, but before anyone gets too excited, there is – not surprisingly – a scientific explanation for it.
The MESSENGER scientists say the lines are “secondary crater lines”.
What that means is outside the field of view are two impact sites. The criss-crossing lines are made up of mounds of “ejecta” thrown up by whatever struck the planet.
So in reality, it’s all just a coincidence, albeit a fascinating one.
Forty-six year old Ianneo says he is passionate about the riddles of Mars. He is from from the Puglia Region and the town of Cerignola (FG)
Ianneo says he discovered the new face on Mars by examining pictures sent back to Earth from an ESA probe orbiting the Red Planet and worked into Google’s map of Mars. He presents the photos below. He is unsure if the photos are optical illusions or a real sculptured face but feels the images will never-the-less cause a sensation around the world.
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