Pictures of Big Foot, the Loch Ness monster and the Face on Mars may have new company. A blown-up section of an image from the Mars rover Spirit shows what looks like a person perched atop a rock on Mars. The image, shown here, was grabbed from panoramic images taken by Spirit from 6-9 November 2007.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University
Here is the "man" in full resolution.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University
The mysterious figure was spotted in the lower left of this section of a panorama taken by Spirit just before it sought shelter from the Martian winter. Spirit has been on the Martian surface for more than four years.
NASA will be returning to this site when the weather improves and the days get longer.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University
In 1976, one of the first images from the Viking 1 spacecraft showed a formation in the Cydonia region of Mars that NASA said resembled a human face. NASA scientists quickly interpreted the image as having been caused by the angle of the sun and the resulting shadows. But that didn't prevent claims that the "Face on Mars" proved there was intelligent life on the Red Planet.
The European Space Agency's Mars Express, equipped with its High Resolution Stereo Camera, revisited Mars' most famous feature in 2006.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Zooming in on the "face" resolves the mystery. The ESA describes it as a "remnant massif thought to have formed via landslides and an early form of debris apron formation. The massif is characterised by a western wall that has moved downslope as a coherent mass".
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G Neukum), MOC Malin Space Science Systems
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