Cydonia lies in the planet's northern hemisphere in a transitional zone between the heavilycratered regions to the south and relatively smoothplains to the north. Someplanetologists believe that the northern plains may once have beenocean beds,[8] and that Cydonia may once have been acoastal zone.[9] It is in theMare Acidalium quadrangle.
Picture of the Cydonia region taken in 2006 by The European Space Agency's satelliteMars Express. "Face on Mars" is just below the center.
Cropped version of the original batch-processed image (#035A72) of the "Face on Mars". The black dots that give the image a speckled appearance are data errors (salt-and-pepper noise).[10]Second Viking 1 image of the Cydonia region on Mars. Labeled 070A13
Cydonia was first imaged in detail by theViking 1 andViking 2 orbiters. Eighteen images of the Cydonia region were taken by the orbiters, of which seven have resolutions better than 250 m/pixel (820 ft/pixel). The other eleven images have resolutions that are worse than 550 m/pixel (1800 ft/pixel) and are of limited use for studying surface features. Of the seven good images, the lighting and time at which two pairs of images were taken are so close as to reduce the number to five distinct images. TheMission to Mars: Viking Orbiter Images of Mars CD-ROM set image numbers for these are: 035A72 (VO-1010), 070A13 (VO-1011), 561A25 (VO-1021), 673B54 & 673B56 (VO-1063), and 753A33 & 753A34 (VO-1028).[11][12]
In one of the images taken byViking 1 on July 25, 1976, a two-kilometre-long (1.2 mi) Cydonian mesa, situated at 40.75° northlatitude and 9.46° westlongitude,[13] had the appearance of ahumanoid face. When the image was originally acquired, Viking chief scientistGerald Soffen dismissed the "Face on Mars" in image 035A72[14] as a "trick of light and shadow".[15][16] A second image, 070A13, also shows the "face", and was acquired 35 Viking orbits later at a different sun-angle from the 035A72 image. This latter discovery was made independently by Vincent DiPietro and Gregory Molenaar, two computer engineers atNASA'sGoddard Space Flight Center. DiPietro and Molenaar discovered the two misfiled images, Viking frames 035A72 and 070A13, while searching through NASA archives.[17] The resolution of these images was of about 50 m/pixel.[18]
More than 20 years after theViking 1 images were taken, a succession of spacecraft visited Mars and made new observations of the Cydonia region. These spacecraft have included NASA'sMars Global Surveyor (1997–2006) andMars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006–),[19] and theEuropean Space Agency'sMars Express probe (2003–).[20] In contrast to the relatively low resolution of the Viking images of Cydonia, these new platforms afford much improved resolution. For instance, theMars Express images are at a resolution of 14 m/pixel (46 ft/pixel) or better. By combining data from theHigh Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on theMars Express probe and the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on board NASA'sMars Global Surveyor it has been possible to create a three-dimensional representation of the "Face on Mars".[21]
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image by itsHiRISE camera of the "Face on Mars" (2007). Viking Orbiter image inset in bottom right corner (1976).
While accepting the "face" as a subject for scientific study, astronomerCarl Sagan criticized much of the speculation concerning it in the chapter "The Man in the Moon and the Face on Mars" in his 1995 bookThe Demon-Haunted World.[33][34] Theshape-from-shading work by Mark J. Carlotto was used by Sagan in a chapter of his famousCosmos series.[35] In 1998, a news article about the "Space Face" quoted a scientist talking about deciphering "intelligent design" in nature. A cutting of this was used byCharles Thaxton as an overhead visual for a lecture at Princeton, in his first public use of the term "intelligent design" as a substitute forcreation science.[36]
The "face" is also a common topic amongskeptics groups, who use it as an example ofcredulity.[37] They point out that there are other faces on Mars but these do not elicit the same level of study. One example is theGalle Crater, which takes the form of asmiley, while others resembleKermit the Frog or other celebrities.[38] On this latter similarity,Discover magazine's "Skeptical Eye" column ridiculed Hoagland's claims, asking if he believed the aliens were fans ofSesame Street.[17][39]
^Normand Baillargeon,A Short Course in Intellectual Self Defense: Find Your Inner Chomsky, p. 177 (Seven Stories Press, 2007).ISBN978-1-58322-765-7
^Charles M. Wynn, Arthur W. Wiggins,Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction: Where Real Science Ends... and Pseudoscience begins (Joseph Henry Press, 2001).ISBN0-309-17135-0
