The Story Behind the Face on Mars
Chances are, if you grew up in a westernized culture, you’ve probably heard of many of the many discoveries of NASA—or, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. They’ve sent dozens, if not hundreds, of roving cameras into space to try and capture what’s really happening out there in outer space. Us humans are a naturally curious species, so it’s no surprise that we’re so curious about life on other planets. However, in terms of Mars (the fourth planet from the Sun), we’ve come the closest to discovering life—or signs of past life—than ever before.
A Little Bit about Mars:
Standing at only about a sixth of the size of Earth, Mars has been a hot topic for those interested in astronomy for a collective of reasons. Be it the red soil it has due to large amounts of iron found in the soil, or the fact it has two moons—Mars never disappoints. While Mars is pretty cold sitting at about eighty degrees below zero, it might have not always been so frigid. In 2004, NASA discovered that water had actually once flowed on Mars. Water does not exist where life is not available as it would have no purpose to. So, while we haven’t actually found any little grey men since we first landed on Mars in 1965, we can be sure that at one point, there was at least a microbial type of life that sustained itself on the water. Or, maybe it was actually grey men! Mars is prone to experiencing dust storms, so even if humanoids existed on the planet centuries ago, their footprints would be long since dusted away.
The Face on Mars:
Mars has been divided up into regions similar to how Earth is divided up into continents. On one particular region named Cydonia, NASA’s Viking 1 mission captured an image of a rock formation that looked eerily similar to a human face. In terms of size, the “face” would be proportionate in size to Egypt’s Sphynx heads. This occurred in 1976, and as soon as the image was published in major media outlets, many people took to the idea that this is not something that was made by Mars’ natural occurrences.
Is the face on Mars actually an ancient type of statue that was built by Martians from centuries ago? It would be about three more decades until NASA could explore this further with higher resolution cameras, but those thirty years were a conspiracy theorist’s paradise. Major-made Hollywood films, comics, books, toys, and even television shows were inspired by the face.
What’s the Truth Behind the Face on Mars?
Unfortunately for those conspiracy theorists and those who had been capitalizing on the idea, a new camera sent to Mars in 2007 would reveal that this “face” is actually an entirely naturally formed hill that had odd lighting provided by the shape and position of the Viking 1 at the time. The hill formed over many centuries of dust storms and other types of wind erosion. It’s nothing more than your average, indented hill that you can find in any given grassy area here on Earth. Just without the grass.
Conclusively, even though the famous “face” on Mars was debunked ten years ago, Mars is still a place filled with wonder and curiosity. It is home to the tallest mountain in our solar system, and it is second to Earth in terms of being able to be hospitable to life. While traces of water were able to be found on Mars and it’s certainly a sign of life, we still aren’t sure whether it was intelligent life or not. Considering that Mars has about a third of the amount of gravity that Earth does, it’s surely a fun thought to entertain that life may have been intelligent at one point there. Another very interesting fact about Mars is that it has the four seasons just like Earth does! However, one “year” or orbit around the sun on Mars equals out to 687 days rather than Earth’s 365, so it’s no wonder that the seasons on Mars actually last twice as long as they do here. Mars also experiences fog, heavy snowfall, rain, and tornadoes!
The more we learn about Mars, the more it’s plain to see why we as naturally curious humans cling to the slightest notion of life there. Perhaps science will have better and more fascinating news for us in the coming years!