MRO Photographs 'Face' on Mars

[paulanderson]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken the highest resolution photo yet of the "Face" in Cydonia:<br /><br />http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/PSP/diafotizo.phpID=PSP_003234_2210<br /><br />While the "Face" does still look somewhat face-like from a distance, the closer you get the more natural it appears to be, like other nearby mesas (many small boulders can be seen also). If it ever was something carved, it is very deteriorated now.

 

[bdewoody]

Your link doesn't get me there. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">Bob DeWoody</font></em> </div>

 

[paulanderson]

Ok, this one works now:<br /><br />http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/PSP/diafotizo.php?ID=PSP_003234_2210<br /><br />I'm a little surprised there's been no discussion of this yet, when a lot of people had been waiting for MRO to take this image; well, here it is! Do others here follow the weekly MRO releases still or is it just me...?<br /><br />I would still like MRO to image some of the other nearby formations, the D&M in particular, but at least we can see the Face now, at a resolution level of just centimetres!

 

[qso1]

paulanderson:<br />I would still like MRO to image some of the other nearby formations, the D&M in particular, but at least we can see the Face now, at a resolution level of just centimetres!<br /><br />Me:<br />Being that the facelike feature is about a mile across, were not seeing down to centimeter res in this image but it is resolved well enough to see much better detail. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[paulanderson]

The centimetre-scale detail is in the <i>largest versions</i> of all the images (JPEG-2000, which you need the JP2 viewer for) and are hundreds of MBs in size, as has been mentioned since the first releases (this image is part of release #21 - April 11, 2007). The "front page" image for each release (with the text description) is the "thumbnail" version as such. The "full browse" version also linked to is an intermediate size.

 

[qso1]

Thanks for that info. I'd like to see it but if I try to load that in my Diplodicus of a computer...it will blow up! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

You're buffer wouldn't just overflow . . .<br /><br /><br /><br />it would projectile vomit.<br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[qso1]

Just think of all those wiry little chunks! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[pyoko]

"Wouldn't you like to be a buffer, too?" <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="color:#ff9900" class="Apple-style-span">-pyoko</span> <span style="color:#333333" class="Apple-style-span">the</span> <span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span">duck </span></p><p><span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color:#808080;font-style:italic" class="Apple-style-span">It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.</span></span></p> </div>

 

[bdewoody]

qso1, I don't know if you are referring to the formation that looks like the outline of a building foundation or not but that is the site I'd like to see a MRO image of. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">Bob DeWoody</font></em> </div>

 

[a_lost_packet_]

<font color="yellow">paulanderson - I'm a little surprised there's been no discussion of this yet, when a lot of people had been waiting for MRO to take this image; well, here it is! Do others here follow the weekly MRO releases still or is it just me...? </font><br /><br />The reason there hasn't been alot of discussion on this is that RCH and the rest of the tinfoil-hat crowd that believes this is some sort of intelligently constructed monument can't find anything within these images (yet - I'm sure they're still looking..) that substantiates their claims. Moreover, the hi-res pics falsify their claims. I'm sure they don't want to talk about that. To the rest of the world, it's a really interesting geographical feature but there are alot of those on Mars.<br /><br />Don't worry. RCH et al, will come forth with some grand conspiracy or something so they can just discount these pictures as cleverly produced fakes.<br /><br />PS - Thanks for the link! I had forgotten this was going to be imaged soon. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1">I put on my robe and wizard hat...</font> </div>

 

[5billionyearslater]

Yes, I agree, "The Face of Mars" was proved to be a trick of light a while ago now. Like you said, it's a geographical feature and not much more. Mind you, it could well be a geographical feature of great significance.

 

[paulanderson]

On a related note, Lan Fleming of the Society for Planetary SETI Research (SPSR) just posted this update concerning the previous 3-D images of the Face taken by Mars Express:<br /><br />http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/updates/2007/apr/m22-011.shtml<br /><br />Apparently, in two reply e-mails to Horace Crater (astrophysicist at the University of Tennessee and President of SPSR), ESA admits that those images not only were vertically exaggerated (at least 2x), as had already been known by many, but also may not be that accurate after all, notably regarding the supposed "horn" feature in the forehead area (which some people, including media, assumed must be a real feature, making the formation much less face-like):<br /><br />http://spsr.utsi.edu/news/ESA3-Neukum.pdf<br /><br /><i>The "peak on the forehead" marks the highest spot in the second DTM. Still we are also not convinced, that the "peak" exists in the way it appears in the second DTM. It may just as well be an artifact created by the DTM matching algorithm. All our press products are based on standard DTMs derived in an automated way, and which do not match scientific standards necessarily, and are not error-checked. We understand that this might have caused some disturbances in the case of the Cydonia release.</i>

 

[qso1]

bdewoody:<br />qso1, I don't know if you are referring to the formation that looks like the outline of a building foundation or not but that is the site I'd like to see a MRO image of.<br /><br />Me:<br />If your referring to the squarish feature posted here months ago, thats the one. I haven't seen an MRO image of it yet. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[abq_farside]

Yeah I would like to see a JPEG2000 image of that site to put it the foundation issue to rest once and for all. Plus it is really cool to be able to zoom to that level of detail. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em><font size="1" color="#000080">Don't let who you are keep you from becoming who you want to be!</font></em></p> </div>

 

[telfrow]

I downloaded it, and I've scanned every pixel of it.<br /><br />Care to guess what I think? <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

Martians are much smaller than we thought? <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[abq_farside]

I can guess what you think. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Did you mean you downloaded the JPEG2000 image of the FOM or of the building foundation (for lack of a better phrase) which I did not think existed yet? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em><font size="1" color="#000080">Don't let who you are keep you from becoming who you want to be!</font></em></p> </div>

 

[telfrow]

<img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /><br />The JPG2000. Took a while. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[zenonmars]

Yes, tel, I would sincerely like to know what you think.<br /><br />Some of the TEM guys have been corrosponding with the HiRise guys, about the tech issues, ya know, and I am still at odds with why the first test images (as we were first slipping into permanent orbit) seemed to be so much more pristine and clear and crisp.<br /><br />Any ideas? I always listen. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[bdewoody]

I want to see a link and yes tell us what you think!!!! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">Bob DeWoody</font></em> </div>

 

[nazcalito]

I'd say the reason there hasn't been much discussion of the new face image here is that nobody here really wants to download either the 186meg or the 303meg image. You need to find a jp2 viewer that will open the image a screen at a time (Open-EV is one), otherwise, you probably will not have enough free ram to open this one. <br /><br />The 303 meg image can now be browsed on the zoomify index http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/HiRISE/hirise_images/. I suggest people look at the image there. Unless you are really into MRO's images, those downloads are a pain to go through and take a long time. <br /><br />I have downloaded both images. Despite the resolution, the image quality is fairly poor compared to the average MRO image -- murky, somewhat blurry, and crosshatched with scan lines. It looks like they took a quick shot of it to satisfy popular demand and then went on to other things. The image is pretty disappointing for all its size. It was taken in northern autumn meaning that the angle of the sun was low and lighting was not good. One of their imaging technicians agreed with me in an email that it's one of HiRISE's poorer images because of the low light conditions. At some time in the future (a few months) there will be color images of the central swath of the face available. Since a year on Mars is twice as long as on Earth, it will be a year before lighting conditions get any better for that part of Mars (spring and summer.) <br /><br />Re: Zen on Mars -- The first test images taken in April of 2006 were good , I imagine, because they were taken at the end of southern summer in the southern hemisphere. Mars is closer to the sun in the southern summer, so the lighting is especially good then.

 

[telfrow]

The link to the photo is here.<br /><br />This is not the JPG2000 version. To download that, you'll need a special viewer.<br /><br />As for my opinion, let's just say I've seen nothing in the JPG 2000 version that changes my previous opinion - which has been fully documented in other threads on the subject. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[nazcalito]

this is a color enhancement of a little piece of the image that I did.

 

[telfrow]

Sorry, the image is too wide (1025 pixels) to approve. Please resize it to a max width of 700 pixels and submit it again. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>