The "Face"

(continued)

Images of historical interest...

Unprocessed version of Viking frame 35A72. The "dots" are data transmission errors.

Frame 35A72, perhaps the most famous image of the Face, photographed in 1976.

Left: Frame 70A13, taken at a higher sun-angle, demonstrates the persistence of the facial resemblance and effectively dispels NASA's "trick of light and shadow" explanation. Right: Frame 35A72 (enhanced).

The Face's anthropomorphic resemblance persists under an extremely wide variety of lighting angles, a trait not expected in a naturally occuring landform. The Face is demonstrably not a "trick of light and shadow."

The Face as seen from above, based on shape-from-shading data computed by Mark Carlotto.

The Face, seen in false color, reveals possible "eyeball." Compare to "eye" feature in Mars Global Surveyor image (below).

Local contrast enhancement of frame 70A13 reveals detail on the right side of the Face in keeping with overall symmetry. The black dot is a camera registration mark, not an actual surface feature.

The deliberately substandard image of the Face produced by JPL in April, 1998 based on Mars Global Surveyor data. This image quickly became known as "the catbox picture" among indepedent researchers.

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal attempts to "debunk" the Face with this uninspired animation derived from Viking and MGS images.

Proper enhancement reveals depth and contrast missing in JPL's version. (This image has been inverted so that the lighting simulates that in the Viking images.)

NASA's second version of the Face is just as misleading as the "catbox" (above). In an attempt to orthorectify the Face, image processor T.J. Parker misleadingly warped the Face's centerline to the far right, as illustrated by the improperly placed "nostrils" (seen correctly in Mark Kelly's rectification, below). The "Picasso Face" has become NASA's "final word" on the subject despite the fact that its asymmetry has been proven to be the result of improper orthorectification, and appears in many publications seeking to dismiss the Face as a potential artifact.

In these animations by Mark Carlotto, the Face "morphs" from its 1998 incarnation to its appearance in 1976. This evidence indicates the Face is indeed a face, and not a trick of lighting (a theory already dispelled by shape-from-shading contour analysis).

Graphics specialist Mark Kelly produced the above sequence based on orthorectified MGS data and low-resolution Viking data. The shadows are not "artistic" additions, but simply analogues of the shadows visible in the Viking pictures.

Compare Mark Kelly's digital reconstruction with Mark Carlotto's shape-from-shading-derived prediction of what the Mars Global Surveyor would have seen on a squandered imaging opportunity in May of 2000. Note "eyeball" feature (discernable in both images).

This partial overhead view of the Face, released by Malin Space Science Systems in early 2001, reinforces the legitimacy of Mark Kelly's rectified enhancement.

Artist Kynthia's painstaking analogue model of the Face matches the results of Mark Carlotto's photoclinometric perspective.