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CASE #QJN0JQ · 1 entities · 0 connections
The Face on Mars (Cydonia)
A 1976 NASA photo showed what looked exactly like a giant carved face staring up from the Martian surface — then higher-resolution photos revealed it was just a hill.
In 1976, NASA's Viking 1 orbiter photographed a mesa in Mars's Cydonia region that, due to lighting and shadow angles, resembled a giant humanoid face. The image fueled decades of speculation about artificial Martian structures, until higher-resolution imaging in 1998 and 2001 revealed an ordinary, naturally eroded landform.
⇄disputed
Quick facts
- →The original 1976 Viking 1 image was taken at low resolution (about 30 meters per pixel) with significant data transmission errors adding a speckled appearance.
- →The specific lighting and shadow angle at the time of the original photo was crucial to creating the face-like appearance.
- →Higher-resolution follow-up images from the Mars Global Surveyor mission in 1998 and 2001 clearly showed a natural, eroded mesa with no facial features.
- →The "face" is a well-documented example of pareidolia, the tendency of the human brain to perceive faces or patterns in random or ambiguous visual data.
Entities on file
Face on Mars (Cydonia) (location)
Martian mesa that resembled a giant face in a 1976 low-resolution photo; later, higher-resolution images confirmed it as an ordinary natural landform.
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