Odd Image from the Martian Surface

[Mysterion]

Okay, first go here and read the article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/ar...in_page_id=1770

Back? Okay. Not saying it is, not saying it ain't; but how cool is that picture?

For a moment just consider: what if this is a piece of statuary/artwork from a long gone martian culture that has been uncovered by way of erosion, dust storms, whatever? Doen't that possibility (admitidly a really big long-shot) stir your imagination just a teensy bit?

I love this universe!

 

[scotthm]

Mysterion said:
what if this is a piece of statuary/artwork from a long gone martian culture that has been uncovered by way of erosion, dust storms, whatever? Doen't that possibility... stir your imagination just a teensy bit?

Sounds like some imaginations have been stirred even without the possibliity.

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[Mysterion]

scotthm said:

Mysterion said:
what if this is a piece of statuary/artwork from a long gone martian culture that has been uncovered by way of erosion, dust storms, whatever? Doen't that possibility... stir your imagination just a teensy bit?

Sounds like some imaginations have been stirred even without the possibliity.

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Okay, so I'm a hopeless romantic. <shrug> Mars was just a bit more interesting back when folks like Lowell, Wells, Heinlein, and Bradbary were running the place.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Very cool. Definitely some possibilities there.

However, what I find even more cool, is that NASA forgot to colorize the sky in the picture like they always do. They actually left the sky BLUE!!!

 

[Arrqh]

The human brain is naturally pattern seeking. Is the possibility of life on Mars cool? Surely, but a blurry image that vaguely looks like a person to a brain designed to quickly identify people isn't exactly compelling evidence

 

[Christopher]

If there really had been Martians who'd created representational art, it would've looked meaningful to them and totally random to us, because they wouldn't have had our anatomy. The very fact that something looks to us like ourselves is strong evidence that it isn't a deliberate creation by aliens.

 

[Meredith]

137th Gebirg said:
Very cool. Definitely some possibilities there.

However, what I find even more cool, is that NASA forgot to colorize the sky in the picture like they always do. They actually left the sky BLUE!!!

Do they Have pics that would show what Mars would look like from human eyes on the surface?

 

[137th Gebirg]

^^^ Oh, lots! All the photographs taken by all the rovers could be color-adjusted to be viewed as if by human eyes, and many of them have.

The problem has always been that the sky was intentionally colorized to look red, making it distinctively alien-looking. When the color test panel one of the Mars rovers (Pathfinder, I think) appeared on one of the photographs, it was shown that the color balance was WAY off. A good Photoshop person could reverse the color correction and adjust for the Pantone colors that were shown on the chart to make them accurate. This was done by various independent graphic and color specialists only to find out that the sky on Mars was, in fact, blue, making it a lot more Earth-like than was previously owned-up to by NASA for unknown reasons.

 

[Mysterion]

Christopher said:
If there really had been Martians who'd created representational art, it would've looked meaningful to them and totally random to us, because they wouldn't have had our anatomy. The very fact that something looks to us like ourselves is strong evidence that it isn't a deliberate creation by aliens.

Sure, but then they also wouldn't have carved a mile-long plateau to resemble a humanoid face at Cydonia either, so...

 

[Arrqh]

Mysterion said:

Christopher said:
If there really had been Martians who'd created representational art, it would've looked meaningful to them and totally random to us, because they wouldn't have had our anatomy. The very fact that something looks to us like ourselves is strong evidence that it isn't a deliberate creation by aliens.

Sure, but then they also wouldn't have carved a mile-long plateau to resemble a humanoid face at Cydonia either, so...

Considering that, once again, the face only looks so when observed through blurry photos I'm not really sure what your point is...

 

[Brandonv]

I think that the part where there appears to be an arm extending outward may actually be a dark colored part of the surface in the background.

 

[Noname Given]

OMG! They found Jimmy Hoffa!

On a more serious note - it's amazing what erosion can accomplish.

 

[Candlelight]

People! People! This is a weather balloon brought on by swamp gas from light reflected off Venus.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

 

[Brent]

It is just a rock formation IMO

 

[Kaziarl]

On several topics.

1)Who ever said Martians wouldn't have similar anatomy? Gavity is lower, but otherwise Mars is somewhat similar to earth. And geological findings from the rovers suggests that before it became the god of war that we know now, it's climate was amlost identicle. Now, that being said, when you look at earth as a smaller version of the bigger picture, you have creatures from different parts of the world, seemingly developing seperately with no mixing, but are really quite similar.

2) I've seen some of those face pictures, and granted they were taken with equipment that we would now look at as archaic, but that equipment was used to take other photo's which no one seems to want to contest. So why this one? Perhaps it's the age old habit of humans to deny what is unknown to them.

3)Rock formation? When was the last time you saw a rock sitting somewhere that looked like a person holding out their arm? If there is one somewhere, give me a link, cause I've never seen it.


Now, I'm not saying this is sure sign of Martian life, but keep an open mind. As far as I see it, it's 50/50 either way still. These pictures aren't proof, but they aren't absolute denial either.

 

[Arrqh]

Kaziarl said:
Rock formation? When was the last time you saw a rock sitting somewhere that looked like a person holding out their arm? If there is one somewhere, give me a link, cause I've never seen it.

Will this do? It's not an arm, but it is a face!

And here's all sorts of neat stuff that looks like other stuff on Bad Astronomy, including the thing in the OP. 50/50 chance of being created by Martians? Hardly!

 

[scotthm]

Kaziarl said:
3)Rock formation? When was the last time you saw a rock sitting somewhere that looked like a person holding out their arm?

For that matter, when was the last time you saw someone sitting on a Martian rock holding out their arm?

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[Kaziarl]

Arrghman said:

Kaziarl said:
Rock formation? When was the last time you saw a rock sitting somewhere that looked like a person holding out their arm? If there is one somewhere, give me a link, cause I've never seen it.

Will this do? It's not an arm, but it is a face!

And here's all sorts of neat stuff that looks like other stuff on Bad Astronomy, including the thing in the OP. 50/50 chance of being created by Martians? Hardly!

Personally, I don't see a face. But thats just me.

scotthm said:

Kaziarl said:
3)Rock formation? When was the last time you saw a rock sitting somewhere that looked like a person holding out their arm?

For that matter, when was the last time you saw someone sitting on a Martian rock holding out their arm?

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You have a point, which is why I didn't say it was a martian. My point was the fact that just because the photo is blurry, doesn't mean it's not what it looks like. It also doesn't mean it IS what it looks like.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

That article has a link to a great picture of the French President's new lady

But besides that, wouldn't you have had a fright if you were on a manned mission to Mars and saw that.

 

[Timo]

Not really, because it would be in daylight and I could move my head for parallax.

In a dark forest, a vague shape can look threatening for a moment, and then stay threatening. All the worse if you can't go and check, such as if you're on guard duty and hiding, not wanting to reveal yourself through movement. But most of the mirages that frighten us are extremely vulnerable to the Mk I Double Take. Look at it from another angle, or in different lighting, and the initial impression goes away and is quickly forgotten. The mirage doesn't linger unless you spend minutes, hours or in this case potentially years looking at it the way you looked at it first.

I can see the face in that static photograph. I probably couldn't see it out in the wild, tho, because a double take would quickly kill it.

Timo Saloniemi