Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Nearly 20 years ago, a pair of images from the Viking missions to Mars revealed a "feature" on the surface in the Cydonia region that looks remarkably like a sphinxlike face. Intensive analysis by many (most notably Richard Hoagland) demonstrated a wide range of apparently significant relationships to other nearby objects. In the interim, 3 follow-up missions to Mars (2 Soviet and 1 American) failed under somewhat mysterious circumstances. I often said (only half jokingly) that something up there was throwing rocks at the various craft. Now that the Mars Global Surveyor mission is in place around Mars (with an extremely high resolution camera aboard) the "Face on Mars" community has been waiting with bated breath for high-quality, extremely detailed images (5 meters per pixel vs. 50+ meter per pixel resolution) to be returned from the same area. This has, at last, happened.... The images returned have proven, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the "Face" is nothing more than an eroded mesa, just like thousands of others on the surface of Mars (or Earth for that matter). The fact that the low-resolution images from Viking look so face-like is a testment to the brains ability to extract apparent pattern and order from what is essentially random data. Much like the images you can see in ink blots or clouds. Anyone who is interested can see the Viking picture at: http://mpfwww.arc.nasa.gov/mgs/target/CYD1/cydonia_map.gif and the high resolution MGS image of the "face" at: http://mpfwww.arc.nasa.gov/mgs/target/CYD1/cydonia1tp_face.gif -- Two rules in life: 1. Don't tell people everything you know. 2. Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
