Mars just got a whole lot cooler

[Evil Jim]

Nestled in the valleys of the Xanthe Terra region, just north of the Martian equator, is a secret. A secret unseen for millennia. A secret still unseen for nearly ten years after being photographed by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera. A secret that's bloody awesome!

There he is!


It was not until recently when a New York artist & musician with the rock & roll band Dead Last was looking through an archive of 3D images of the Martian landscape & discovered this:

3D anaglyph. Wear your glasses with the RED lens on the LEFT

The cropped portion above is taken from the center of the center strip of the tiled, continuous photograph up top & rotated 90° counter-clockwise. Dead Last musician Stone describes the Martian image as

what looks to be an intentionally created relief on the surface of Mars, depicting a dancing man with a mustache, sideburns and a Mohawk, dressed in a shirt, pants and work boots, who appears to be vigorously shaking his butt.

See him?


The area surrounding the Martian figure below is darkened to better outline his form. Stone says the Martian figure's outline was established at 1600% magnification of Malin Space Science Systems' anaglyph and that it is accurate to the pixel, with the possible exception of certain sections of the figure's top right forearm and outermost right shirtsleeve, which exhibit diminished delineation.

Also a song writer who plays with the New York based Rock band Dead Last, Stone dubbed the Martian figure "Captain God-Rock", named after a song he had written years prior. Dead Last has recently announced the release of their music video called "Captain God-Rock", documenting mankind's journey to the stars from ancient times to current day. The ten minute video also contains segments of music recorded by the band throughout the years.

Commenting on the title track (Captain God-Rock), which was shelved at the time it was written, Stone says, "We never pursued the song in the studio because we never had a clue what the title or lyrics meant. Not that writing something enigmatic isn't OK.. it's fine, but it wasn't until now that the song took on real meaning. The only track that exists is what you hear on the video (last song) with just an electric guitar, drums, and vocals. I'm just glad we had the tape running (laughs)."

Now, what you've all been waiting for:

MSSS archives of the Xanthe Terra region
Original huge-ass image of the area where Captain God Rock is located. Find him yourself, tho' it may help to rotate 90° clockwise.
Captain God Rock video, by Dead Last
Dead Last website with more info on discovery

[Lord Chrusher]

The human mind is very good at finding patterns where none exist.

[Alex Steacy]

The human mind is very good at finding patterns where none exist.

/thread

But seriously, is astronomy really so boring that people have to pretend to see things? This is worse than that stupid fucking mars face thing.

I can do this too! If you look close in that photo above, you can see a french eclair, or maybe a cloud formation in Arizona, or a FUCKING LUMP OF DOGSHIT.

Sorry JIm, I just needed to get that out - not directed at you.

[Evil Jim]

You do have a sense of humour, don't you? Exactly why are you offended?

Personally I think it's pretty darn cool that something up there can so easily be interpreted as a man-like figure, whether it's formed by erosion or a trick of the light or people with green skin & enormous, bulging foreheads. (*throb-throb*) It's really neat, that's all that matters.

[Graham]

I find it fascinating too.
Moreso for the brains amazing ability to create faces and people out of seemingly random objects, than for erosive forces on Mars.

Still fascinating though!

[Master Gunner]

I'm pretty sure in the future Evil Jim will acquire a time machine, go back in time to Mars, and set this up as his greatest 3D masterpiece.



Also, astronomy is NOT boring.

[AlexanderDitto]

I find it fascinating too.
Moreso for the brains amazing ability to create faces and people out of seemingly random objects, than for erosive forces on Mars.

Still fascinating though!

It's called Pareidolia, and it's some seriously wacky shit.

Faces do weird things to our brains. The Thatcher Effect is another good example. Even crazier is Prosopagnosia, where you lose the ability to recognize faces. CREEPY.

But yeah seeing shapes in rock formations is a little silly, since it distracts from the REALLY interesting question: how were those grooves made? Tectonic activity? Meteor impact? Water flows? Other planets are super exciting geologically.

[Lyinginbedmon]

One of the most important things humans need to learn early on is faces, and filling in blanks is something human brains do well too in order to rationalise and problem solve.

I think seeing things in other things, especially faces, is a side effect of the two aspects of human neurochemistry interacting. It sees a rock formation and tries to fill in blanks, causing the face section to say "Hey! That has some similar elements to faces! It's a face!"

Same thing with clouds really.

[Alja-Markir]

Next step for my facial recognition capacities?

Learning to tell crows and other corvids apart as individuals. Apparantly, there is research which shows that in addition to recognizing each other, they can also tell humans apart. I'd like to be able to reciprocate.

~Alja~

[Metcarfre]

...and exact sweet, sweet revenge.

[Alja-Markir]

...?

Corvids are incredible animals. I have never been wronged by one, only benefited.

~Alja~

[Metcarfre]

Ravens are pretty cool. Crows can go huff a dong.

They know what they did.

[Bananafish]

Corvids have some tight facial recognition but I think they recognize one another mostly through sounds so you'd probably be better off learning bird calls

[Friend]

Look! I can make shit up too!

[Sheri_Now]

soo.. is this like the remedial section of the forum, Jimmy? or is it all like this? lol

[Emperor Gum]

soo.. is this like the remedial section of the forum, Jimmy? or is it all like this? lol

I think that's this thread. But its kinda a remedial board. Welcome to the forums!

[goat]

What the fuck are you lot on about?

It's clearly a giraffe having intercourse with your mother.

What, the rest of you don't see that?

[Sheri_Now]

soo.. is this like the remedial section of the forum, Jimmy? or is it all like this? lol

I think that's this thread. But its kinda a remedial board. Welcome to the forums!

ty, luv

btw.. i think someone requested this lol

[Alex Steacy]

I think spotting shapes in planets and so forth is cute, but what makes me angry is when it gets associated with that crowd of conspiracy-theorizing morons that say stuff like "Hey, a rock formation that sort of resembles a face! This PROVES there are space aliens."

I guess I should have been more clear about that - I actually enjoy finding shapes in chaos, but when people take those kinds of observation as fact it sort of makes my blood boil.

[Lyinginbedmon]

If however we found a structure that could not have occured in nature, such as a building or intricately-carved linework, THEN we can say "This PROVES there are space aliens."

However, this has so far not been the case. Better imaging technology has generally ruled out this possibility (The Face of Mars for example vanished as image resolution increased)

[AlexanderDitto]

If however we found a structure that could not have occured in nature, such as a building or intricately-carved linework, THEN we can say "This PROVES there are space aliens."

Except, no, it doesn't. That's not how science works.

If we find a structure that could not have occurred in nature, it is FAR more likely that our understanding of nature is simply incomplete than the chance that some advanced civilization happened to develop right next door to Earth.

A good example is the channels on Mars. When discovered, many people's first reaction was "ZOMG AGRICULTURAL CHANNELS CLEAR EVIDENCE OF ALIENZ." But instead scientist worked out that it is likely that they were formed by liquid water. The reaction, again, was "ZOMG LIFE MAYBE?"

Now studies of some of these channels reveal that it is highly likely that some of them were formed by lava, not water.

SCIENCE: CAN YOU SPEAK IT?

[Lyinginbedmon]

I wasn't thinking of Mars, I was thinking places further out in the universe. And I also didn't say it could be decided to be life because of absence of knowledge about nature, as you say we found channels on mars that were initially called agriculture and then ancient rivers, but trying to unravel their creation filled in a gap of our knowledge about nature and once again the alien life went away, just like the Face of Mars.

Still, if a house is found on a alien planet, would you agree that can be considered proof of extraterrestrial life? There's literally no way a full blow house, perhaps with definable doors and windows and multiple floors, could be developed by, say, wind erosion.

[Sheri_Now]

just wondering if anyone on this thread actually checked this out..

i'm guessing 'no' lol

[Master Gunner]

The only way to prove that there exists at least one extra-terrestrial lifeform is to meet said lifeform, and take samples that can be tested to show that it is not of terrestrial origin. Even then, it could just be a mass delusion.

Then again, we could just be brains in jars and everything is a delusion/simulation.

Perception is fun.

[Evil Jim]

It's worth noting that the face of Captain God Rock is still visible even at the reasonably good resolution of the "huge-ass image" on the MSSS page linked above, whereas, the Caledonia Face loses all definition when you get in closer.

[Source]

I think spotting shapes in planets and so forth is cute, but what makes me angry is when it gets associated with that crowd of conspiracy-theorizing morons that say stuff like "Hey, a rock formation that sort of resembles a face! This PROVES there are space aliens."

I guess I should have been more clear about that - I actually enjoy finding shapes in chaos, but when people take those kinds of observation as fact it sort of makes my blood boil.

Thanks for the clarification. I couldn't understand at first what about my thread promoted so much ire. I reiterate that I'm not declaring this as proof of anything other than of itself: a part of the Martian landscape that appears to be shaking its butt.

Personally, I think his head is a crater with a collapsed wall. The band has a contact in NASA trying to get access to even higher resolution images so they can really see what it is. When they find out I'll update this thread with a link or something if possible. Until then, does anyone have the Google Mars spin-off of Google Earth that they can check this area out in simulated 3D?

Speaking of Google Mars, Thereminist Thomas Grillo made a discovery of his own & created a video illustrating it to the music of Also Sprach Zarathustra. Accompanied on theremin, of course. You may find this face a bit more recognizable. LINK