Relates to an image of a human visage on Mars, beamed back by the
Viking 1 spacecraft in 1978. Revelation that the image was an eroded rock
humanized by light and shadow, according to the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration's Global Surveyor; Information on images.
By
Camille Chatterjee, published on September 01, 1998
Two decades ago, we were captivated by the image, beamed back by
the Viking 1spacecraft, of a human visage on Mars. This year, NASA's
Global Surveyor, which limns objects 10 times smaller than Viking could
capture, revealed the "Face on Mars" was merely eroded rock humanized by
light and shadow. Still, the original lkik=eness is so vivid that some
have refused to admit it was a fiction of our imaginative, brains.
We see faces everywhere-- envision them in clouds, trace them in
tree trunks, construct them in starry skies. Are we hardwired to find
faces, or do we have some deep-seated emotional need to see them?
In fact, faces render vastly foreign places familiar. We see our
image chiseled in Mars because it means we are not alone. To quell our
deepest fear loneliness--we seek gazes that greet ours in welcome,
reassuring us that we matter to others. We embrace the idea of our
likeness on Mars as proof that our hopes are shared by someone beyond our
world
"I am half sick of shadows," despairs Tennyson's Lady of Shalott,
cursed to view faces only through a mirror's reflection, and thus to
suffer in isolation. We, too, are half sick of shadows that mask a
planet's face and give us .false hope. But the other half hopes still,
that mirrored beneath other celestial shadows we will discover truth--and
ourselves.
PHOTOS (BLACK & WHITE): The face on Mars
Tags:
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emotional need,
eness,
face,
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false hope,
global surveyor,
lady of shalott,
light and shadow,
likeness,
loneliness,
mars,
mask,
perception,
photos black,
sick of shadows,
space,
starry skies,
Tennyson,
tree trunks,
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