New images of the 鈥渇ace鈥� on Mars have been obtained by Europe鈥檚 Mars Express spacecraft. They reinforce what scientists thought from the beginning 鈥� that the face is just a naturally sculpted hill.
The 鈥渇ace鈥� appeared in a photo of Mars鈥檚 Cydonia region taken in 1976 by NASA鈥檚 Viking 1 spacecraft. NASA scientists believed from the beginning that the feature was simply a hill that happened to look like a face because of the way the Sun cast shadows across it at the time the photo was taken.
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However, the image sparked speculation that the face was built by aliens and that NASA was trying to cover it up.
The agency used the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft to take new images of the region in 1998 and 2001. The new, much more detailed images showed a hill with no particular resemblance to a face (see Martian conspiracy theorists lose face).
Email campaign
But since the European Space Agency鈥檚 Mars Express spacecraft arrived at Mars in 2003, many unconvinced members of the general public have been asking mission scientists to take more images of the feature.
鈥淪o many people wrote me emails 鈥� hundreds 鈥� saying, 鈥榃hy don鈥檛 you image Cydonia, tell us the truth, we don鈥檛 believe NASA,'鈥� says Gerhard Neukum of the Free University of Berlin, Germany, chief scientist for Mars Express鈥檚 High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC).
Mission controllers have been trying to get images of the region since 2004 but had been thwarted until recently by dust and haze in the atmosphere. Finally, on 22 July 2006, the team obtained clear images of the region with the HRSC.
By making observations of the area from slightly different angles as the spacecraft moved through its orbit, mission scientists have been able to build a 3D map of the 鈥渇ace鈥� and the surrounding area.
Sculpted by erosion
The hill that sparked so much speculation is clearly seen in the new images to be a natural feature shaped by erosion, says Agustin Chicarro, ESA鈥檚 chief scientist for Mars Express.
鈥淢y grandfather used to collect pieces of wood that look like birds or dogs or things like that,鈥� he told New 杏吧原创. 鈥淭his is the same thing 鈥� people get excited and see what they want to see. What has modelled these reliefs is simply erosion.鈥�
Neukum agrees. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a mountainous structure and there鈥檚 no artificial thing. These are mounds that have survived a general erosional process,鈥� he told New 杏吧原创.
The whole area was once as high as the tops of the hills in the region, he says, but most of it has eroded down, with a few more resistant areas surviving as hills. The erosion is probably the result of ancient glaciers or perhaps liquid water carving into the rock, he says.
