APOD: The Face on Mars (2021 Jul 04)

[APOD Robot]

The Face on Mars

Explanation: Wouldn't it be fun if clouds were castles? Wouldn't it be fun if the laundry on the bedroom chair was a superhero? Wouldn't it be fun if rock mesas on Mars were interplanetary monuments to the human face? Clouds, though, are floating droplets of water and ice. Laundry is cotton, wool, or plastic, woven into garments. Famous Martian rock mesas known by names like the Face on Mars appear quite natural when seen more clearly on better images. Is reality boring? Nobody knows why some clouds make rain. Nobody knows if life ever developed on Mars. Nobody knows why the laundry on the bedroom chair smells like root beer. Scientific exploration can not only resolve mysteries, but uncover new knowledge, greater mysteries, and yet deeper questions. As humanity explores our universe, perhaps fun -- through discovery -- is just beginning.

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[Antony Rawlinson]

Can anyone say where on the planet this is located?

Also what are the black dots that litter the frame? Are they surface features or just imaging effects?

[DL MARTIN]

Just a note of thanks to NASA and the Michigan gang for the APOD freely available daily. Happy July 4th celebration.

[orin stepanek]

MartianFace_Viking_960.jpg

I wonder why we haven't sent a mission to explore this place; seems
only logical!?

145904480.jpg

Kitty is vert bored

[Chris Peterson]

Also what are the black dots that litter the frame? Are they surface features or just imaging effects?

Missing data.

[Chris Peterson]

MartianFace_Viking_960.jpg
I wonder why we haven't sent a mission to explore this place; seems
only logical!?

Well, we have enough high resolution images to know exactly what it is. A mesa like thousands of others. Just about every place on Mars could be considered interesting. We can't visit most!

[johnnydeep]

Also what are the black dots that litter the frame? Are they surface features or just imaging effects?

Missing data.

I was wondering the same thing. Specifically, from the "mesas" link in the text:

The speckled appearance of the image is due to missing data, called bit errors, caused by problems in transmission of the photographic data from Mars to Earth.

[johnnydeep]

Can anyone say where on the planet this is located?

Cydonia. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydonia_(Mars)

Cydonia (/sɪˈdoʊniə/, /saɪˈdoʊniə/) is a region on the planet Mars that has attracted both scientific[1] and popular interest.[2][3] The name originally referred to the albedo feature (distinctively coloured area) that was visible from earthbound telescopes. The area borders the plains of Acidalia Planitia and the Arabia Terra highlands.[4] The area includes the regions: "Cydonia Mensae", an area of flat-topped mesa-like features, "Cydonia Colles", a region of small hills or knobs, and "Cydonia Labyrinthus", a complex of intersecting valleys.[5][6] As with other albedo features on Mars, the name Cydonia was drawn from classical antiquity, in this case from Cydonia or Kydonia (Ancient Greek: Κυδωνία; Latin: Cydonia), a historic polis (city state) on the island of Crete.[7] Cydonia contains the "Face on Mars", located about halfway between Arandas Crater and Bamberg Crater.[4]

Location
Cydonia lies in the planet's northern hemisphere in a transitional zone between the heavily cratered regions to the south and relatively smooth plains to the north. Some planetologists believe that the northern plains may once have been ocean beds,[8] and that Cydonia may once have been a coastal zone.[9] It is in the Mare Acidalium quadrangle.

The Cydonia Region on Mars.JPG

[E Fish]

And at high resolution, the face doesn't look like a face at all (courtesy of NASA):

[DL MARTIN]

APOD asks if reality is boring. Well if you live as I do at the base of the 400 million year old Niagara Escarpment (NE) and look at the geological layering and then associate that time frame to the fact that photons that we see as the Tadpole Galaxy left that entity about when the NE was starting and then look up at the top of the escarpment that constitutes the present and realize that everything down to the base is the time that the galaxy itself has evolved unseen, then one might discern the past tense frame of reference inherent in astronomy.
HAPPY HOLIDAY.

[johnnydeep]

APOD asks if reality is boring. Well if you live as I do at the base of the 400 million year old Niagara Escarpment (NE) and look at the geological layering and then associate that time frame to the fact that photons that we see as the Tadpole Galaxy left that entity about when the NE was starting and then look up at the top of the escarpment that constitutes the present and realize that everything down to the base is the time that the galaxy itself has evolved unseen, then one might discern the past tense frame of reference inherent in astronomy.
HAPPY HOLIDAY.

Yes, deep time, and the exegetic history it leaves behind for us to delve and learn from are indeed amazing.

Happy Fourth to you too, you time-frame-obsessed poster you!

[neufer]

Futurama: "Where the Buggalo Roam" Episode

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

The great stone ass of Mars is one of the two entrances to the Martian Reservation, the other being the great stone face of Mars, which is on the other side of the planet. It is located in the eastern hemisphere of Mars. Leela mentioned the great stone ass of Mars before entering the Martian Reservation through the great stone face, but Zapp felt like it isn't as important as its counterpart .

[Fred the Cat]

Remembering the face of technology serves me to appreciate how far we’ve come since Mars’s first visitor.