Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter takes another look at the non-face on Mars
Click for original image
In 2007, shortly after it began science operations in Mars orbit, the science team for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) pointed its high resolution camera at the so-called “Face on Mars”, taking a picture that confirmed (as had Mars Global Surveyor several years earlier) that this “face” was a non-face, simply a mesa whose features made it appear roughly facelike in low resolution imagery.
Now, more than sixteen years later, scientists have used MRO to take a new picture of the non-face mesa. That picture is to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here. Compared to the 2007 photo the new photo has far better lighting conditions, revealing many details on the mesa’s eastern half that were mostly obscured by shadows previously.
In fact, these new details strongly suggest that the depression on the mesa’s eastern slopes harbors a decaying glacier. At least, that is what the features there resemble.
This conclusion is not unreasonable, considering the non-face’s location as shown on the overview map to the right. Though it is far to the west from the region I label glacier country, it is in the same mid-latitudes. The northern lowland plains in this area have many near-surface ice features. For example, in the picture above it appears that an ice sheet abuts the base of this mesa on both its northeast and northwest sides.
Scientists probably decided to take a second picture of this mesa to see if anything had changed in the subsequent sixteen years. Though it appears nothing has changed, based on the resolution of the picture above, a much more detailed look will be required to confirm that conclusion. The new observations actually included two pictures, the one above taken on November 4, 2023, and a second taken on October 1, 2023. Using both together scientists will be able to create a 3-dimensional stereoscopic view, which will further help them find any changes from the 2007 image.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for original image
In 2007, shortly after it began science operations in Mars orbit, the science team for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) pointed its high resolution camera at the so-called “Face on Mars”, taking a picture that confirmed (as had Mars Global Surveyor several years earlier) that this “face” was a non-face, simply a mesa whose features made it appear roughly facelike in low resolution imagery.
Now, more than sixteen years later, scientists have used MRO to take a new picture of the non-face mesa. That picture is to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here. Compared to the 2007 photo the new photo has far better lighting conditions, revealing many details on the mesa’s eastern half that were mostly obscured by shadows previously.
In fact, these new details strongly suggest that the depression on the mesa’s eastern slopes harbors a decaying glacier. At least, that is what the features there resemble.
This conclusion is not unreasonable, considering the non-face’s location as shown on the overview map to the right. Though it is far to the west from the region I label glacier country, it is in the same mid-latitudes. The northern lowland plains in this area have many near-surface ice features. For example, in the picture above it appears that an ice sheet abuts the base of this mesa on both its northeast and northwest sides.
Scientists probably decided to take a second picture of this mesa to see if anything had changed in the subsequent sixteen years. Though it appears nothing has changed, based on the resolution of the picture above, a much more detailed look will be required to confirm that conclusion. The new observations actually included two pictures, the one above taken on November 4, 2023, and a second taken on October 1, 2023. Using both together scientists will be able to create a 3-dimensional stereoscopic view, which will further help them find any changes from the 2007 image.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
It will always be known as the face on Mars.
Bob Zimmerman,
The Face on Mars is, in fact, a “face”.
It’s just that it has been seeing the same plastic surgeon as John Kerry.
Try to accept known facts.
Facts won’t stop the True Believers ™. They will insist that either a secret mission from Area 51 set demolition charges and blew up the face or the Reptiloids in NASA had their Space Alien allies do it.
Col B – How did you find out the truth????!!!!!??????!!!!
We won’t know until we get there. If we do get there and it really is some form of archeology, would they tell us?
There was an earlier high-resolution image taken right around the turn of the century. I had a subscription to AWST at the time and showed the picture to my co-workers. Just an eroded mesa, what a let-down!
Here’ the 2007 hi-res image: https://hirise-pds.lpl.arizona.edu/PDS/EXTRAS/RDR/PSP/ORB_003200_003299/PSP_003234_2210/PSP_003234_2210_RED.abrowse.jpg
Hartely and David M Cook: I do link to this 2007 image in my post itself. Why did you not notice?
A 3 km long mesa that is Not A Face.
Not A Face Yet.
Not until we get there with a couple bulldozers.
Next you’ll be telling us that that the five sided pyramid built by an alien race isn’t real either… Even though they made a documentary about it narrated by Arnold Schwarzenegger? Totaled out recall or something….
What no one has told us, and can only be revealed now, is that a few people with way too much time on their hands became very, very inebriated, also known in some vernaculars as ‘faced’ and saw faces in many places.
My other favorite is the Cydonia Pyramid Complex. I remember books written on the Cydonia Pyramid Complex. Some even postulated that the humans on Earth are the ancestors of the Cydonia Pyramid Complex. If so, do we all have “a right to return” and claim our piece of Martian real estate?