First it was the
Face of Mars. Later it was the
D&M pyramid. A few days ago it was a speculated
spaceship on the surface of Mars by an “armchair astronaut.” Now, after searching around using Google Mars (via Google Earth), one Italian space enthusiast has discovered Mahatma Gandhi’s face on the red planet.
In cooperation with NASA scientists, Google has now given the public the opportunity to explore Mars by using data collected from two NASA Mars missions; 2001 Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor.
Since this application was launched, Italian space buff, Matteo Lanneo, has claimed to have found numerous things on our neighboring planet, including city ruins, vegetation and entrances to underground tunnels, according to
Before It's News.
His latest finding is of a face that depicts Mahatma Gandhi and is located at 33°12'29.82"N and 12°55'51.21"W.
The
UK Sun, however, says, in jest, that the image looks more like Alf Garnett, a fictional character on various British sitcoms. “GAWD blimey! Legendary TV loudmouth Alf Garnett puts in an unexpected appearance - on MARS.”
Scientists, though, are not shocked by this discovery because of a term called pareidolia where we see faces where there are not any. This happens because of our heightened sensitivity of face details.
What is it then? After taking another photograph using the CTX camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, it actually is a collapsed pit. “As you can see, we're actually looking at some sort of collapse pit, not a mound like it appears in the Google Mars image,” said researcher at the Arizona State University Mars Space Flight Facility, Jonathan Hill, in an interview with
Life’s Little Mysteries.