#Latest face of mars full
#Latest face of mars series

One of these visible remnant massifs became famous as the 'Face on Mars' in an image taken on 25 July 1976 by the American Viking 1 Orbiter.Ī few days later, on 31 July 1976, a NASA press release said the formation 'resembles a human head.' However, NASA scientists had already correctly interpreted the image as an optical illusion caused by the illumination angle of the Sun, the formation's surface morphology and the resulting shadows, giving the impression of eyes, nose and mouth.

'Human face' first seen in 1976 'Face on Mars' illusion as seen by Viking 1 This transition is characterized by wide, debris-filled valleys and isolated remnant mounds of various shapes and sizes. '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.'Ĭydonia is located in the Arabia Terra region on Mars and belongs to the transition zone between the southern highlands and the northern plains of Mars. 'These images of the Cydonia region on Mars are truly spectacular,' said Dr Agustin Chicarro, ESA Mars Express Project Scientist. Cydonia lies at approximately 40.75° North and 350.54° East. The data were gathered during orbit 3253 over the Cydonia region, with a ground resolution of approximately 13.7 metres per pixel.

#Latest face of mars series

Horizontally and the contrast is very low.After multiple attempts to image the Cydonia region from April 2004 until July 2006 were frustrated by altitude and atmospheric dust and haze, the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board Mars Express finally obtained, on 22 July, a series of images that show the famous 'face' on Mars in unprecedented detail. Images as originally released by the project - note the orientation is flipped This shows the MGS strip and the equivalent section of Viking 1 Orbiter frame Orbit: 220 Range: 444.21 km Resolution: 4.32 m/pixel Image dimensions: 1024 X 19200 pixels, 4.42 km X 82.94 km Line time: 0.69 msec Emission angle: 44.66 degrees Incidence angle: 64.96 degrees Phase angle: 61.97 degrees Scan rate: ~0.1 degree/sec Start time: periapsis + 375 sec Image acquired: Sun 05 April 1998 UT 08:39:37 (04:39:37 EDT, 00:39:37 PST) There appears to be haze orĬydonia Region Enhanced Image Image information Image shown above (70A13) was taken under late afternoon lighting conditionsĪnd has a resolution of about 43 meters/pixel. The image was taken from a distance of 444 km at an oblique angleĪnd has a resolution of 4.3 meters per pixel. The morning sun was 25 degrees above the horizon of Mars at the time the image (located at approximately 40.8 N, 9.6 W) on 5 April 1998.

Mars Global Surveyor acquired a high-resolution 4.4 km x 41.5 km swath of theĬydonia Mense region of Mars, including the feature known as the 'Face on Mars' MGS image shown beside Viking 1 Orbiter Image 70A13 for comparisonįull Resolution Enhanced Image (238K TIFF) Per pixel, and was acquired at nearly a vertical viewing angle (2.35 degrees). The high resolution image has scale of 2.5 m (8.2 feet) This offset,Īpproximately 3.13 km (1.9 mi) in longitude, is greater than one-half of theįield-of-view (FOV = 2.6 km or 1.6 mi), and there is very little if any overlap between the

Owing to spacecraft pointing control limitations, theĪctual area imaged was centered at 40.84 N, 9.98 W. The MGS spacecraft attempted to image an area known as the 'City' centeredĪt 40.86 N, 9.91 W. Orbit: 239 Range: 331.07 km Resolution: 2.5 m/pixel Image dimensions: 1024 X 9600 pixels, 2.5 km x 24 km Line time: 0.35 msec Emission angle: 2.35 degrees Incidence angle: 66.77 degrees Phase angle: 68.81 degrees Scan rate: ~0.15 degree/sec Start time: periapsis + 375 sec Image acquired: Tue 14 April 1998 UT 14:02:17 Next to this are shown the imaging parameters for The area imaged is shown as the white box The second and third images show the top andīottom of the swath, respectively.

#Latest face of mars full

The first image shows the full processed swath of the Cydonia region viewed by MOC2-283, 24 May 2001)Ī full-resolution version of the image (5.3M) This image was taken by the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbital Camera underĬloudless conditions on 08 April 2001 and has a resolution of 1.56 m/pixel. New MGS Image of the 'Face on Mars' in the Cydonia Region Cydonia Region of Mars Mars Global Surveyor images of the Cydonia Region of Mars