I now I link to Emily a lot, but it’s because she’s just so cool. To wit:
How can you not love a picture like that? And it looks more like a face than anything Cydonia ever produced.
-
About Bad Astronomy
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.
The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
Bad Astronomy was chosen as one of Time.com's Best Blogs of 2009. Science Getaways
Subscribe to BA
Death from the Skies!
Order a copy of Death from the Skies! from Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.
"If things worked the way I wanted them to, any reporter about to do another 'sensational' story on deadly meteors would consult this volume, and bang! common sense would find its way into the news. How strange would that world be?"
-- Adam Savage, Mythbusters
"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot UprisingSocial/Networking/Cool Stuff
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space- DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
- A Planet of Viruses: Autographed Book Sale
- Animal Friendships: My cover story for Time magazine
- The Future of E-books–podcast of my interview on Wisconsin Public Radio
- Thursday, February 16: Science and social media panel in New York
- A Scientific Jonah: My profile of Joy Reidenberg in tomorrow’s New York Times
Copyright © 2012, Kalmbach Publishing Co.
Privacy - Terms - Reader Services - Subscribe Today - Advertise - About Us
February 1st, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Looks like a miniature version of the large “Happy Face” (aka Galle Crater).
February 1st, 2008 at 2:12 pm
(http://tinyurl.com/29yzjq) I think this local diner chain will be looking to sue over their trademark.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
WOW, I can’t believe it!! Does nobody else see it??
It’s… it’s… it’s the VIRGIN MARY!!
Now to figure out how to sell it on ebay…
February 1st, 2008 at 2:22 pm
This has got to be the most expensive advertisement for a movie ever…
(Obviously, this is for the Watchmen movie. There’s no way this could be a random arrangement of rocks, that’s just not how the universe works…)
February 1st, 2008 at 2:24 pm
It’s the signature Smiley-face cookie from Eat’N'Park!
February 1st, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Martians are stoners!
February 1st, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Well, it’s no Jesus inside of a potato but its still pretty cool.
February 1st, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I think that face is much better than the other face!
Darnit, looks like Martians violated some copyrights! Let’s sue ‘em!
February 1st, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Oh, that is a beautiful image. The “face” looks like it was drawn by my 3 year-old nephew; convincingly asymmetrical, completely spontaneous.
Which of course is exactly how it happened, if you define “spontaneous” to span however many millions or billions or years it took all those features to form.
I agree: the “Cydonia Complex” has nothin’ on that for cuteness!
February 1st, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Forrest Gump ran to Mars???
February 1st, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Am I the only one who thinks he’s wearing a monocle in his left eye?
February 1st, 2008 at 4:23 pm
The “smile” might be a rille?
February 1st, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Oh No, the little green men are at it again…..
Now if someone drew in some lines and did a little math……
February 1st, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Well, if it’s faces Hoagland wants, there’s a really big one on that rock in planatary earth orbit,,,you know the one,,,,the Man In The Moon,,,
What a Dork!
I wonder how much money he’s made off his books and personal appearances? Even more, I wonder if I could sue him for false misrepresentation and false advertising of his books,,,
GAry 7
February 1st, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Looks like Rebecca after happy hour.
February 1st, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Phil, that is amazing. It even has dimples!
Anyway, I thought you might like this article over at Cabinet of Wonders by Heather McDougal, all about pareidolia:
http://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.com/2008/01/shapes-of-things-we-see.html
I think I was originally sent there by either your Man-Crush(er) or Neil, but either way, it’s an amazing blog.
February 1st, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Looks like it was drawn by giant burrowing space worms to me!
February 1st, 2008 at 8:03 pm
@Mark
LOL!
February 1st, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I must say I’m rather concerned. What is going on on Mars? Surely it is more than mere coincidence that 2 identical features (happy faces) would appear in craters? Phil, what are the odds of that? Now I’m convinced. Those ancient Martians were Happy People
February 1st, 2008 at 8:42 pm
nifty how the pattern recognition centers of my brain mee this as a smily face.
ohh i know, Wal-mart has taged mars and is advertising on the red planet
February 1st, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Something is clearly not right here. What are the odds of two craters sharing identical features on the same planet? Surely this cannot be mere coincidence. Clearly there is something else going on here! What does this reveal about Mars’ ancient history?
Clearly, the ancient Martians were very happy people! They came up with the original “Smiley” emoticon.
February 2nd, 2008 at 12:59 am
Why do I see several (Martian) spermatozoa dancing around a huge (Martian) egg?
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:09 am
wow it is beautiful
” nice nice nice
it’s just like ”
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:39 am
Finally. Proof there is plant life on mars. Now the CIA and FBI will be sending probes to import that killer Mars-Weed.
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:19 am
It’s funny but don’t laught too much…
There are evidences of Martians in meteorite ALH84001.
The Martians could be bacterias…
February 2nd, 2008 at 12:59 pm
It’s Colonel Klink!
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
billsmithaz says: “Am I the only one who thinks he’s wearing a monocle in his left eye?”
I was going more for concussion, myself.
- Jack
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:50 pm
This only PROVES my theory that Wal-Mart is actually a front for a Martian invasion force! They intend to wear us down with low prices and big box store volume sales!
“I can see the enemy now, above the pallisades… a big box store, followed my two others…. they stand like a line of new towers on the city’s west side… They lift their metal hands… (This is the end now.)…
Here it comes… price rollbacks, heavy, black, price rollbacks… There are thousands of people running, trying to get away, dropping into the river like rats…”
Seriously, what is the location of this feature? I’d like to look it up on Google Mars.
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:11 am
“On Mars, a Happy Day is a 1/2 Hour Longer!”
Those poor Martians! Just slaving away for the “Man” (Substitute Martian equivalent.) Martian children, slaving away in the sweatshops of Cydonia, 24.5 hours a day, while their evil corporate masters make huge profits, flogging cheap products made in Valles Marines! They ought to be ashamed of themselves! Power to the Martians! Martians stand up and unite! Unionize!
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:08 am
I always tend to have trouble viewing images of craters as indentations – I have to stare at them a while before they “pop” into the correct perspective. (As does Hoagland of course with his “glass tubes” on Mars, except that I KNOW my eyes are deceiving me!)
The trouble with this one is that the craters that make up the facial features seem to “pop” the opposite way. The main crater has the light coming from the right, but the features seem to be lit from the left. So are these craters within a crater, or are they mounds on top of a crater? Or is it just a trick of the light? I’m not trying to start a rumour that the photo is fake or anything, but to my ageing oculars the eyes, nose etc. are either a mounds inside a crater, or craters on the top of a mound.
Cute, nonetheless.
February 3rd, 2008 at 10:28 am
This is undeniable proof… Mars is inhabited by hippies!
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
I wonder if there are any “happy face craters” on the moon or mercury. Seems to be a good chance that this configuration could turn up on any heavily cratered object. I bet we find them on several moons, asteriods or planets other than Mars. examples: Mercury, Moon, Callisto, Ganymede, Ceres, Pluto, Charon, Eris.
February 3rd, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Someone better not let this Richard Hoagwash or whatshisname see this one!
He’ll probably start a story about Nasa hiding/killing martians who look like smileyfaces with arms and legs.
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:00 pm
That’s awesome!
February 4th, 2008 at 3:04 am
[...] BadAstronomy hat folgende Bilder zur Diskussion gestellt. Den mit Kopierrechten versehenen Merkur: Sowie einen uns an(aus?)lachenden Mars: [...]
February 4th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
“…What would happen to the state of mind of America’s press if Allah (God) orders the Blacks on Mars to show themselves? Yes, Blacks!”—from the book “Closing the Gap: Inner Views of the Heart, Mind, & Soul of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan”, pg. 233
February 4th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Phil,
Looking at the Mercury images reminded me of your friend Dan “Herda “Durda and his quest for finding Vulcanoids. He wrote:
“Any Vulcanoids that may wander the inner frontier of the solar system elude us still,” Durda wrote in an article for The Planetary Report. “It’s clear that future Vulcanoid searches using the Earth’s limb to block the Sun will have to pay close attention to beating the problem of scattered light from the twilight limb. We won’t be throwing in the towel on the search for Vulcanoids anytime soon. This is a challenging observational problem we want to solve, and knowing once and for all whether any Vulcanoids exist today—and what their properties are—is important to planetary science.”
Will this latest journey to Mercury have any Vulcanoid research component to it?
February 4th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
oops, I meant to leave this under the Mercury Photo….D’OH!
February 5th, 2008 at 7:16 am
[[“…What would happen to the state of mind of America’s press if Allah (God) orders the Blacks on Mars to show themselves? Yes, Blacks!”—from the book “Closing the Gap: Inner Views of the Heart, Mind, & Soul of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan”, pg. 233]]
I knew poverty and discrimination had forced a lot of black people into really bad neighborhoods, but making them move to Mars is just inhumane. People of every race deserve oxygen, an ozone layer, and temperatures in the liquid-water range!
February 8th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
“Angstrom Science Award winning author, Richard C. Hoagland, in his groundbreaking book, “The Monuments Of Mars, A City On The Edge Of Forever,” covers in great detail the chronology, scientific analysis, and the hidden politics surrounding the discovery by this world’s scientists of intelligently designed structures in the region of Mars known as Cydonia.”
“As previously stated, these structures include what appears to be giant Neolithic (stone) monuments, such as pyramids, a sphinx-like face, and a city complex that Hoagland and many other scientists have studied and documented. In his book, Hoagland reveals how he and U.S. Defense Mapping Agency cartographer Erol Torun discovered two redundant mathematical codes in the geometric configurations of the Cydonia monuments. One of these mathematical codes also has been found, according to Hoagland, in the geometry of the monuments built by our forefathers on the Giza plateau in Egypt!”
—from an article entitled: Scientists agree with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad
Is there human life on Mars?
by Robert Muhammad
http://www.finalcall.com/national/mars05%2D22%2D2001a.htm
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:16 pm
most sciencetist today frabricate or hide truth being bias, racism,lots of greed and theories not firm rooted but i do respect their partially insight on truth and hardworking discovering, but that jus stop their. If the right spirit faith and follow carefully every sacred books of world they will decipher codes unlocking the secrets of the universe. that one of reason God have to come are raise a messager represent his (coming) sacred books fortells this. God comes with root wisdom not partial, little bit, u think God dont what (he) originate in universe and has ultmate solution for humanity problems.Theirs no other form greater that human form for conveys his spirit. The bible explain this God make man in his own image this in Genesis DNA.
Richard C Hoagland ,Zacharia Sticthen, David Childress, Ivan Sartima and others this great scientist in their feilds even for their trying.
Mars has civilzation on it their Black being on that planets ,all do respect Black is universal and the essence which colors come from which means theirs other being are not tripple black theirs no green & gray beings, the gray ones mistaken as the white yes their are whites that obey Supreme God orders.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Superioty does not base on color but base on pure righteousness even know we are not yet perfect we have grow into that first
Jesus says have sheep not of this fold, joseph many colors,in the Kingdom of heaven call body of Christ, thats why prophet Ibn abdulla muhammad 1400 years ago was a white arabian,white arab rule at that time even though blacks are original people of Arabia founder of oldest civilation on earth(Mecca) the Holy Quran says Allah raise messagers or prophets every nation includes Nortradamus thier prophets in Europe to guide people in that time in path God. white people is not source of all our problems we had problems, their was know white people at that time, this was 66trillion years ago are more of making of the moon One our Black Scientist(God) wanted a entire people on the earth to speak same dialect he couldnt inforce his will so got frustrated and blasted the moon into space. Scientist today has brought back sample of the moon smell like smoke fumes.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:22 am
Seems to me the face on mars is a monument to Alahu, (see Lost books of Enki).
//
Yes the “gods” if you want to call them that, created mankind (manipulated the original inhabitant of Earth by DNA).
//
No if this is completely true, i do not know, but it is no more or less true than the bible i think. After studying the bible for years in my christian upbringing, i realised there is so much more to learn.
//
Now i really wonder how people today can believe in some all supreme god, but i do understand it, for i was once such a believer.