Simulacra, things that look just like something else are pretty common. Our brains are hardwired to see faces and forms, so virgin mary shows up in a cheese sandwich, an old man’s face appears on the side of a New England mountain, and we see eyes and faces in cheap woodgrain doors.
A recent Mars photo has a great simulacra. Is it a man? yeti? jawa? osama bin laden? a 2 inch tall rock shaped by wind and water? This photo will be the source of as much ballyhoo, hot air, wonder and investigation as the face found on Mars a decade or more ago. If these simulacra stir public interest in space exploration-if only to “see what it really is” then, as they say, it’s all good.
Here’s a link to the original photo from NASA.
LIFE ON MARS: THE PROOF?
www.express.co.uk | Wednesday January 23,2008 | John Chapman
THE issue has divided stargazers for centuries.
Now finally this picture provides evidence that there really is life on Mars – or does it?
The photo from the Red Planet appears to show a Yeti-like creature with a huge head making its way down a mountainside.
It was taken by a Nasa space probe, and its appearance on the internet yesterday fired the imagination of every science fiction fan who secretly yearns for a close encounter with an extra-terrestrial.
Then again, of course, it might not be a Martian at all…but just a strange rock formation.
Initially, astronomers hoping for signs of life on the fourth planet were disappointed when Nasa’s Mars Explorer Spirit sent back images from the surface four years ago.
The pictures showed a red, drab, dusty surface devoid of life.
But one space enthusiast scanned every rock and crevice and spotted the ape-like “Martian”, which appeared as just a pinprick on the original photograph. The image was then blown up and posted on a Chinese website.
The intriguing photo will again focus attention on Earth’s nearest neighbour, which many scientists have long believed could harbour alien life.
One stargazer writes on the site: “My first thought – it’s Big Foot! If you show me another rock in another photo from Mars or Earth that naturally looks like that, I will reconsider.”
Another says: “These pictures are amazing. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked and saw what appears to be a naked alien running around on Mars.”
But it should be remembered that after a phenomenon dubbed “the face of Mars” caused great excitement in the Seventies, it turned out to be just a rock formation.
The photographs showed what appeared to be a human head staring into the night sky.
The Mars Explorer Spirit rover touched down in 2004 for a three-month mission to search Gusev Crater, a rock-strewn stretch of dusty soil which scientists believe may be the bed of an ancient lake.
Beaming its images across millions of miles of space, the six-wheel robot had been deployed to examine rocks which could offer clues to the Red Planet’s geologic past.
If Mars once had surface water, it had the potential to support life.
Analysis of soil uncovered when a wheel jammed on Spirit revealed that it contains 90 per cent silica – a concentration only likely to have formed when water is present.
If it can be proved that Mars had water within the last few millions of years it would make the discovery of past or current life more likely.
Perhaps this new picture might just provide the answer…
Post a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.