The Mars Express images captured a skull-shaped mesa. A lava flow pattern on the large volcano Alba Patera looks a great deal like the popular Muppet Kermit the Frog. Viking captured several other intriguing images, including the Galle crater in the southern highlands, boasting a curved mountain range and two mountain clusters that create the appearance of a smiley face. Both the Global Space Surveyor and the Mars Express captured enough data to create a three-dimensional look at the fascinating formation.Īlthough one of the most popular landmarks on Mars, the face is by no means the only group of rocks to lie in a visually pleasing configuration. The results revealed that there was nothing unique about the structural formation of the face itself it resembles its neighboring landforms. Other mesas are scattered across the Cydonia region, and the orbiters have measured them while circling over the area. It likely formed from a combination of landslides and collected debris. The rocky outcropping that creates the illusion is approximately a mile across and bears a resemblance to buttes or mesas from the American West. A study last year found that humans are particularly susceptible to seeing human faces where there are none, because our knowledge of the human face is so ingrained in our brains.A close-up view (from above) the Martian Happy Face, Crater Galle, in false-color. Spotting things that don't exist - on Mars or in clouds - is called pareidolia. Galle is 143 miles (230 km) wide.The new images were released today. It is located on the eastern rim of the Argyre Planitia impact basin. The smiling mountains sit within the Galle Crater, a hole in the ground dug by a space rock and whose rim forms the outline of the face. But seen in a new perspective view by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, the smile is wiped from the landscape, becoming nothing more than a line of mountains. From straight overhead, the Happy Face resembles that ubiquitous yellow smiling sticker. New photos would lay to rest any wild ideas along these lines. Nobody seriously thinks it's actually something that's been built. Less controversial is the Happy Face on Mars, first noted in NASA's Viking Orbiter mission. The most famous example is the Face on Mars, the one that some people believe to be the construct of an intelligent civilization. And then there's the mile-long translucent worm. In this realm of false sightings, Mars reigns. With a few hills, some shadow, and a heavy dose of imagination, you can see a lot of things on Earth or in a space rock that are not there. Happy Face on Mars Exposed - April 12, 2006 I worried that if we put it in, people would never believe it." The actual crater was visualized in the 2009 film adaptation of Watchmen.Ī second "happy face crater", smaller than Galle and located at 45.1°S, 55.0°W in Nereidum Montes, was discovered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on January 28, 2008. According to Gibbons, the similarity "was almost too good to be true. The formation was first photographed by Viking Orbiter 1.Īs the smiley is a key motif in the comic book Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the crater was used as a story location after the coincidence was noted by Gibbons. Galle is often known as the "happy face crater" because the illusion of a smiley is created by a semicircular mountain range and two smaller craters within the main crater. It is named after the astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle. It is located on the eastern rim of the huge impact basin Argyre Planitia. Scrying Objects on Mars - Smiley Face Crater Scrying Objects on Mars - The Smiley Face Crater - Crystalinks
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