Our human minds are very good at seeing shapes in nature. Go to NASA’s Science page and read about the infamous face on Mars. Open Google Earth and change it to Mars (click on the icon that looks like Saturn). Type “face on mars” in the search box. This will zoom you into what the “face” looks like with NASA’s most recent imagery. Discuss the sources of error that contributed to this mesa originally looking like a face and how these issues have been corrected in the updated imagery. Describe other features viewable in Google Earth that appear to be different than what they are and how those images have influenced the public.
NASA’s science page: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-global-surveyor/
In response to your peers, compare and contrast the sources of error and public influence of their selected features to the ones you discussed.
Posts to respond to:
Post 1: The “Face on Mars” is a classic example of pareidolia, where our brains interpret random images or patterns of light and shadow as familiar objects. In this case, a mesa in the Cydonia region of Mars was misinterpreted as a human face. Subsequent high-resolution imagery from missions like the Mars Global Surveyor and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has since corrected these issues. Other features on Mars, and indeed on Earth, can also appear to be something they are not when viewed from space. For example, the “Happy Face Crater” (Galle Crater) on Mars looks like a smiley face due to a combination of impact crater morphology and dark dune material within it. In Google Earth, similar instances of pareidolia can be found, such as the “Badlands Guardian” in Alberta, Canada, which looks like a human head wearing a full Native American headdress when viewed from above. These images often go viral and can influence public perception, sometimes leading to conspiracy theories or simply awe at the natural world’s ability to create familiar shapes. It’s a testament to the power of human perception and the stories we weave around the patterns we see.
Post 2: In a word document file
