Sure, we’re all familiar with the childhood tales of the face, female head, rabbit, or boy collecting sticks on the Moon.

However, Mars is quite different.

Since the antiquity of astronomy, the Red Planet has been the focal point for supernatural and extraterrestrial mythos; from Schiaparelli’s “canali” observations and Percival Lowell’s literary works suggesting Mars was an arid world (the cause of its gradual demise due to ancient civilizations purging the planet with their irrigation technology), to H.G. Wells’ radio broadcast which plunged a small New Jersey town into a frenzy of paranoia with claims of a hostile Martian takeover, ‘Mars fever’ has been a thing for well over a century.

Humanity’s premiere science fiction writers and filmmakers of the 1930’s through the 1960’s elevated the existing mythologies surrounding Mars to new dimensions. Ray Bradbury introduced The Martian Chronicles; Edgar Rice Burroughs’ took us on harrowing adventures in his Barsoom series; Robert A. Heinlein took us to the Moon, Mars and the spaces between the stars.

In the midst of this bonanza of science-fiction literature, Warner Brothers created the Bugs Bunny antagonist Marvin the Martian; and an onslaught of pulp films rushed to the cinemascape to appease the masses craving more from this enigmatic world shrouded in mystery.

It wouldn’t be long before new residents to the author community would arrive to feed the public appetite. Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy beckoned many other artists to the table, such as Greg Bear, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Wernher Von Braun, all the way up to present science fiction authors such as Andy Weir, Kameron Hurley, and Bob Goddard.

When we actually reached Mars — with robotic emissaries of ourselves — the stage of our favorite pop culture obsession was revealed to be a world of desolation, complex terrain, bewildering areology…a world of wonders…to the scientific community. The public at large, however, became instantly underwhelmed, with their fantastical expectations of a welcoming or threatening alien race moved back into the realm of science fiction.

Until we surveyed the Martian surface in greater detail, mysteries remained and more questions arose from the data transmitted from above and below Mars’ atmosphere. Although the greater public — especially the niche community of conspiracy theororists, ufologists, and hopefuls betting on the presence of a thriving alien civilization — were generally unimpressed and confronting denial with the returned images of their beloved planet of infamy, little time passed before Mars would once again flood the media with talk of ancient aliens. But this time, spurred by actual data in the form of images of Mars itself.

Imaged on July 25, 1976 by the Viking 1 orbiter, a region of Mars named Cydonia — from Kydonia, a historic polis (or “city-state”) on the island of Crete — attracted scientific and public interest when the below image was returned:

If the above image mosaic doesn’t strike you as *gasp*-inducing, here’s the same image, processed:

If you’re human, like I know I am, you most likely couldn’t help but recognize the all too familiar “face” making itself obviously visible in three dimensions.

Rest assured, you’re not seeing things. Well, you are, but you simply cannot avoid it when our brains are hardwired with an evolutionary imperative to do just that — see. Pattern recognition is kind of our thing.

The “Face on Mars” drew worldwide attention and speculation by, quite honestly, a small fraction of the population whom were able to illuminate the discovery as an actual discovery, of which it wasn’t.

NASA scientists addressed the public to ensure the face was merely the way shadows were created due to the absence of photons, nothing more; however, those who exploited the idea that it did not form naturally forged a theory that the face was the remnant of an alien civilization, suggesting that other features on the Martian surface were likely a destabilized extraterrestrial city of some sort. Since 1976, “the face” has appeared in numerous pop culture references claiming it as an indication of life on Mars during the planet’s history.

Even the popular sci-fi television show X-Files devoted an episode involving an astronaut suffering from paranoia and an extraterrestrial presence where his face actually starts to turn into the “Mars face.” Spooky, surely, but more a testament to the longevity of Mars fantasy, obsession, and relevance, in human culture.

If humanity only visited Mars in a one-shot opportunity to never come again, perhaps the “face on Mars” would have garnered longer lasting appeal; but this was the proclaimed “golden age” of spaceflight, where there were many missions to follow. So, where there were moments to capture images of the Cydonia region throughout subsequent years, we did so.

After analysis of the higher resolution Mars Global Surveyor data, NASA stated that “a detailed analysis of multiple images of this feature reveals a natural looking Martian hill whose illusory face-like appearance depends on the viewing angle and angle of illumination”. Similar optical illusions can be found in the geology of Earth; such as the Old Man of the Mountain, the Romanian Sphinx, the Pedra da Gávea, the Old Man of Hoy, Stac Levenish, and the Badlands Guardian.

While theories and speculations waxed and waned amidst the public, geologists and planetary scientists at the time were far busier being enamored with Mars’ dynamic range of buttes, hills, valleys, mesas, and knobs located in the Cydonia region, which lies in the Mare Acidalium quadrangle, a transitional zone in the planet’s northern hemisphere with 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 and that Cydonia may once have been a coastal zone.

“These images of the Cydonia region on Mars are truly spectacular; they not only provide a completely fresh and detailed view of an area famous to fans of space myths worldwide, but also provide an impressive close-up over an area of great interest for planetary geologists, and show once more the high capability of the Mars Express camera.”

— Dr. Agustin Chicarro, ESA Mars Express Project Scientist

Further pareidolia applied to surface features on Mars include:

The so-called “floating spoon” photographed by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) ‘Curiosity’ rover during the rover’s 1,089th day on the Red Planet. Once again, planetary scientists at NASA had to assure the public that “There is no spoon. This weird Mars feature is likely a ventifact — a rock shaped by wind,” NASA officials wrote in an image description.

The “Man from Mars” imaged by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) ‘Spirit’. British newspapers didn’t hesitate to seize the headlines with such reads as “Crikey! There’s A Little Green Man On Mars!” What was just a craggy little rock formation stood out in the form of what looked like a little walking …Bigfoot? UFO Sightings Daily immediately announced the rock formation was likely a female figure made by aliens, of course. Emily Lakdawalla of The Planetary Society followed up to remind us what optical illusions are, with another fine example of pareidolia.

A rat, iguana, the side profile of Mahatma Gandhi, a bunny rabbit, a *ahem* phallic image in the tracks from the Spirit rover (because, the Internet), trees, a secret Mars “Bio-Base,” evidence of life on Mars asserted by psychics, and a positive — rather than dubious — “smiley” face on Mars seen within Gale Crater have all been the subject of illusive sightings on Mars.

The reality is, pareidolia will continue to influence us as long as there are humans. Or, until the singularity occurs, whereby areological data will be instantaneously accessible to inform us of what our brains actually are seeing; thus, avoiding such illusions.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this exposé on what surely will occur again, especially when we have a physical human presence on the Martian surface to live, explore, and report of leprechauns on Phobos…

Explore Mars was created to advance the goal of sending humans to Mars within the next two decades. To further that goal, Explore Mars conducts programs and technical challenges to stimulate the development and/or improvement of technologies that will make human Mars missions more efficient and feasible. In addition, to embed the idea of Mars as a habitable planet, Explore Mars challenges educators to use Mars in the classroom as a tool to teach standard STEM curricula.

Register Now For The Humans To Mars Summit 2018

May 8–10, 2018 | George Washington University | Washington, DC