Mars Revisited: Face the facts

It is known as the bastard son of esoterica and has become the go to-example whenever pareidolia is mentioned. Even though our space organizations have refuted any artificial aspects to it, the facts indeed point the other way. Let us dare to take another look at the infamous Face on Mars.

Preface

In Carl Sagan's last book The Demon Haunted World he wrote the following regarding the puzzling structures on Mars:

It was probably sculpted by slow geological process over millions of years. But I might be wrong. […] 

Much more detailed photos of the Face would surely settle issues of symmetry and help resolve the debate between geology and monumental sculpture. 

[…] I hope that forthcoming American and Russian missions to Mars, especially orbiters with high-resolution television cameras, will make a special effort – among hundreds of other scientific questions - to look much more closely at the pyramids and what some people call the Face and the city.

Today we have the data that Sagan was hoping for, and I'm positive that he would be quite intrigued by what it tells us, especially regarding the issues of symmetry. But first I believe a quick historical recap is in order. Let's turn back the clock to 1976, it's late July and NASA has finally succeeded with sending an orbiter to Mars ...

The Appearance and the Banishment

It is during a fly over of a region known as Cydonia, when the Viking 1-orbiter snaps an intriguing shot of what appears to be a gigantic structure resembling a human face. NASA honors the find with a press release saying that a unique face like feature has been found on Mars. However, the mystique instantly fades when the media is informed that another picture, taken mere hours after, reveals that the face indeed was nothing more than an optical illusion; trickery of light and shadows - a curiosity at best. “Nothing to see here folks, move along...”

Frame 35A72m is the first and probably the most famous picture of the Face on Mars.

Even though the (second) picture in question never gets shown, the public quickly backs off. Nevermind that NASA shortly after the announcement changed Viking 2's landing spot, which originally was supposed to be the Cydonia region, to a much rockier zone called Utopia, far away from any enigmatic monument. 

Four years later, in 1980, two engineers, Vincent DiPietro and Greg Molenaar, were blessed with the task of going through all the data that the Viking orbiter had collected. In doing so they stumbled upon the mysterious second picture, and as it turned out, the face was still there, despite differing light conditions and another camera angle.

Frame 70A13 was taken almost a month after the first picture. The light and angle differs, yet the facial features remains.  

Further examination revealed that the photo was taken almost a month after the first one, and that the orbiter not only didn't but also couldn't have taken another snapshot of the face a few hours after wards, as it was mapping out the other side of the sphere at that time. In other words: they lied about the second picture.

Ultimately the engineers publish a detailed analysis of the anomalous structures in the Cydonia area called Unusual Martian Surface Features, favoring an artificial origin to them. Regrettably, neither NASA or the public pay any attention to their findings. It will take two decades before the Face resurfaces from the murky depths of oblivion.

The late 90's Cat-roversy

Although few scientists believed the Face was an alien artifact, photographing Cydonia became a priority for NASA when Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) arrived at the Red Planet in Sept. 1997, eighteen long years after the Viking missions ended. "We felt this was important to taxpayers," explained Jim Garvin, chief scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "We photographed the Face as soon as we could get a good shot at it."

When reading the story on NASA's official web page you easily get the impression that during the end of the millennium they indeed had a great interest in the anomalies of Mars. This is clearly not the case seeing as how not too long ago the object of interest was discarded as a pile of rocks by the very same agency.

A press conference was held shortly after the new pictures were taken, and once again the Face was declared to be the work of people's imaginations. The picture that was sent out to international press seemingly confirms this.

The "Cat Box" picture that was sent out to media around the world.

As you can see the facial features are completely gone, instead we are looking at something more similar to the random mess of a cat's litter box, hence the nickname "The Cat Box". However, one must admit that it looks rather strange, not really on par with what you would expect the Martian terrain to actually look like. 

Comprehensive image analysis from various independent researchers concludes that the picture has been subject to manipulation.* Most obvious being the excessive filtering rendering the mesa to look virtually flat. Moreover only a total of 42 out of 256 possible gray values are featured. Alas, the agency of no straight answers pulled off yet another deceptive stunt. Strike two.

The Face with the Horn on it's Head

The question of actuality takes a new turn in 2006 when the European Space Agency (ESA) releases a fresh batch of slides. Finally we get a fair trail in the case of the martian mug shoot.

Detailed view of the Cydonia region. Taken by ESA's Mars Express.

Zoom in on the face from the picture above. 

"These images of the Cydonia region on Mars are truly spectacular," said Dr Agustin Chicarro, ESA Mars Express Project Scientist. "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."

Spectacular pictures yes, the rest of the statement raises some questions. You would think that the new pictures, which look a lot more like the original Viking ones than the 1998 MGS frauds, would re-spark some kind of debate, but no. Instead they are interpreted as the last nail in the coffin for all the "space myth fans" (the whole article called ESA's View of Cydonia - The Face on Mars is filled with similar derogatory references, Mac Tonnies eloquently addressed them here.) out there. 

But at least the pictures didn't lie this time ... Well, not entirely. For some reason ESA also decided to publish a 3D animated version of the Face featuring a horn on it's forehead, a trait that does not exist. The Cydonia Institute does a great job in pointing out the absence of any horned feature in any other of the pictures and renderings of the mesa, including those by ESA. No explanation for the horn has been given and inquiries** continues to be ignored, thus strongly suggesting a blunt disinformation ploy. Strike three.

Unlocking the Secrets of Cydonia

It has been demonstrated that the various space agencies are pushing a certain agenda regarding the structures in the Cydonia region. Sadly, this means that the official conclusions are not to be trusted. Ironically the lying and manipulation of data ultimately gives less credence to the idea they so desperately want you to believe. 

If we ignore their speculative assertions and instead follow the data we can still manage to get a grasp of what we are dealing with here. For example, looking at the latest image of the Face one may notice the two perfectly straight lines in the upper left corner, framing the facial features. This reminds us of the symmetrical aspects which Carl Sagan in his last book said would be the game breaker. Evidently, the elements of regularity are striking.

This break down made by the deviantart user "jubran" makes a strong case for the Face being a construct.

The Face is located within close proximity of other enigmatic formations referred to as "The City", "The Fort", "The D&M Pyramid" and more. Of course this further supports the idea of artificiality. But NASA doesn't agree, not surprisingly the whole region gets the same type of cold hand treatment. In comparison to what geologists and archaeologists find interesting here on Earth, you'll have to once again wonder how this can be.

These aerial photos showing potential pyramids in Egypt caused quite some stir in the world of archaeology in 2013. 

The D&M Pyramid in Cydonia, effectively causing zero stir in world of academia since it's discovery in the 70s.

Let us then assume for a moment that we are dealing with remnants of an ancient civilization on Mars. Plainly this has tremendous implications, one being that a sophisticated intelligence existed in our solar system long before modern man lit his first fire. This would likely cause or view of ourselves as a unique type of intelligence to shatter in a heartbeat, no longer would we be the masters of our realm. 

Furthermore we might ask who they were and where they went. Were they extinct or are there still some of them there? Perhaps they took off  to some other place, maybe even Earth? And if so, could they have influenced our history? In the light of the severe ramifications that would follow a disclosure, NASA's stance does make sense. Why upset the Status Quo when one can simply lie. 

And what if the truth is too much for us to handle ...

What if ... 

Sources:

http://thecydoniainstitute.com/The-1976-Face-on-Mars.php
http://posthumanblues.blogspot.de/2006/09/misleading-text-from-esa-face-on-mars.html
http://www.saeti.org/The_Face_on_Mars_of_ESA.htm

http://www.vgl.org/webfiles/mars/face/catbox.htm
http://thecydoniainstitute.com/The-ESA-Team-Creates-a-Horned-Face.php
http://thecydoniainstitute.com/The-%22Cat-Box%22.php
http://jubran.deviantart.com/art/Face-on-Mars-355347580

*See the following links for a detailed analysis:
http://www.enterprisemission.com/shrunk.html
http://www.metaresearch.org/solar%20system/cydonia/proof_files/proof.asp
http://thecydoniainstitute.com/The-%22Cat-Box%22.php
http://www.vgl.org/webfiles/mars/face/catbox.htm

**One of the chief team members of ESA, Dr. Gerhard Neukum, openly admits that the horned feature is of doubtful nature, saying in a letter "we are also not convinced that the “peak” exists in the way it appears in the second DTM.". For further references see the bottom of this page: http://thecydoniainstitute.com/The-ESA-Team-Creates-a-Horned-Face.php

The Curious Case of Dean Fagerstrom

Channeling is the controversial occurrence in which a human uses her body as an instrument for communication with intelligences of the other worldly kind. The communication may express itself in different ways, the most common of them being through speech although this is not always the case, as we shall soon see when we take a closer look at one of the most intriguing channeling cases of our time – The Fagerstrom Case.

During the 80's renowned ufo researcher Philip J. Imbrogno decided to look into the phenomenon of channeling. With a skeptical mind set he examined about 40 cases, meeting every one of the alleged channelers personally. His investigations concluded that at least 90% of them could be ruled out as unsubstantial at best. The remaining few, however, had certain perplexing qualities to them which couldn't easily be discarded.

Dean Fagerstrom back in the days.

The year is 1982 when legendary J. Allen Hynek, a pioneer in the ufo world and (in)famous for creating the swampgas meme, suggests that Imbrogno should visit a man namned Dean Fagerstrom (DF): a Vietnam vet who among other things were active in intelligence for 11 years during his military career. 

At the time he's residing in a simple home in Putnam Lake, NY. Apparently he's been experiencing weird things throughout his life. The researcher's first impression of DF is that he's both intelligent and articulate, although a distinct down to earth attitude is also noticed, him holding a can of beer in one hand, a cigarette in the other.

Anyhow, they're both standing there small talking when DF all of a sudden feels the urge to pull out a bunch of papers from a drawer, which he subsequently hands over to Imbrogno. According to him, a higher intelligence of the name “Donestra” signalled that it's time for these papers to be known to the world. It's the first time they see the light of day in almost 15 years. 

The first 6 drawings – numbering over 30 in total. Check the links at the bottom for more of them.

The papers contain complex diagrams of technical principles and constructions. This is a summary of Fagerstrom's story regarding their origin: it's the 19th of January, 1968. He wakes up in the middle of the night and sees an object floating in front him, it looks like an old fashioned microphone. A pointy object emerges from it, stopping just in front of his forehead. Suddenly his whole body starts to vibrate, and before he knows it he blacks out. 

When waking up the following day, he's in a trance like state. He gets in his car and drives to the nearest store and acquires some office supplies, pens and papers etc.. Then he drives home and more or less isolates himself in a room for 72 hours, creating these engaging sketches solely by hand – a most remarkable task if true, as the geometrical precision in them is flawless.

The core of a helium atom

A photon accelerator is to be found among the various blueprints, quite splashy considering this was in 1968.

The pictures have been object of great interest from many a professional eye, ranging from physicists to drafters; some voices insisting on at least 20 years of experience in both fields for these to be conceived.

Due to the blueprints not being complete, experiments are difficult to set up and on top of that most scientists aren't keen on destroying their reputation by associating with mediums. But a few experiments have been carried out following some of the instructions, but they've never lasted for more than a few seconds before over heating caused them to fail - although not without some interesting moments just before.

Imbrogno explaining the renderings in detail accompanied by a chilled out Fagerstrom.

There is a lot more to DF than mere sketches, apart from them he supposedly has channeled sophisticated piano pieces, an obscure mathematical system and a collection of writings on Swedenborg's mysticism. The sketches alone, however, indeed raises a lot of questions; and until they've all been answered to a satisfactory level, the curious case of Dean Fagerstrom remains the enjoyable enigma it is ♣

For more info on Dean Fagerstrom, visit 
http://www.strangerthanscience.com/news_event/dean_fagerstrom.htm
http://www.binnallofamerica.com/boaa021311.html
http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc681.htm

Mars Revisited: The Glass Tunnels

For decades interesting features on the surface of Mars have been photographed by our satellites. Most of them are exterior, while others are of an interior nature. Yours truly have been studying the mysteries of the Red Planet quite extensively, and would like to present to you a couple of these peculiarities accompanied with my personal conclusion regarding one of them (the Glass Tunnels!).

The crater found in 2011

2011 one of the Mars Orbiters took a snapshot of a black dot situated in a crater on our neighboring red planet. It is believed to portray a 35 meter wide and 20 meter deep hole. Although it immediately reminds one of an earthly sink hole, the cause for it can not be determined definitively. However, this wasn't the first time a snapshot of huge hole was found on Mars, in 2007 we managed to get a snapshot of 7 different ones located on the Martian equator; ranging from 100 up to 250 meters in diameter.

These seven holes were found along Mars equator.

Interesting to note is the deep black color which indicates that the walls of the holes are fully or near vertical, as well as being being very deep. Scientists in the field are speculating that the deepest might be up to 140 meters from top to bottom, thus making them excellent shelters for potential life forms - may that be microbes or colonizing earthlings.

Intriguing are also the so called ”Glass Tunnels” popularized by the infamous Richard C. Hoagland. Back in 1999 a unique snapshot was taken by NASAs MGS-satellite seemingly portraying these tunnel systems. At a first glance it's easy to see where Hoagland is coming from, they indeed look like transparent structures, complete with light sources and everything.

One of the tubes. Note the white dot resembling a light source. 

Naturally, the tunnel-theory has never gained any mainstream recognition, (excluding the enthusiastic Arthur C. Clarke), instead these interesting characteristics have always been explained away as mere sand dunes. Ron Nick, a certified geologist, gives his point of view on Hoaglands website.

In short he mentions that the ridges should be of almost the same dark color as the surrounding gravel, rather than being „significantly more reflective“. He also mentions the „Y-formation“ which consists of three closely situated formations with unique patterns; presumably three different winds blowing in three different directions would have been necessary to create this formation.

The intriguing Y-area. Sand dunes or remnants of a Martian Civilization?

However, looking at the original picture, there are ridges in other areas that clearly aren't part of any tunnels, instead they appear to be nothing less than sand dunes. In the original post on the Swedish blog I wrote that until we have better pictures, nothing can be said for sure.

And guess what, when translating this post I did come across better material, not from the same area but depicting the same phenomenon, only this time it's in original color. 

If you ask me this picture settles it.

This is part of a bigger picture which you can find here.

It's worth noting that I found the picture on a debunking site (by Phil Plait), but instead of just showing the picture it also features a lot of unnecessary mocking and made up statements. Not surprisingly a rather hot tempered post and follow up discussion were to be found on a believer site (by Mike Bara).

A prime example of ego and pride standing in the way of knowledge.

Evidence, ignored

What if a respectable NASA scientist found indisputable proof of the existence of alien lifeforms? And how would we react if one of our Mars rovers came across something that looked suspiciously fossil-like while cruising the red planet?

Dr. Richard B. Hoover spent 46 years of his life working for NASA before he retired in 2011. Astrobiology and extremophiles were his areas of expertise, in which he also made significant discoveries, earning him the title „Inventor of the Year“ by NASA in 1992. Considering Dr. Hoovers impressive merits, you'll have to wonder what's going on when his research is continuously being ignored. Research that no less than three times, has concluded that fossilized microorganisms of non-Earthly origin has been found in fresh meteorites.

In short, he has found fossilized microorganisms in meteorites that we know for a fact hit Earth  within the last 200 years. The fossilized samples in these space rocks lack any trace of oxygen, a process that takes many hundreds of thousands of years to happen. His findings therefore suggests that the specimens are ancient (not from here) and definitively not a result of contamination.

In spite of these highly scientific evidence, he is being widely criticized by his peers who insists that some form of Earthly contamination must have occurred [sic]. NASA on the other hand are playing the Kafka card saying that nothing can be taken into account before a certain level of peer reviewing has taken place - peer reviewing which no one are willing to do. 

--

But where could these fossils come from? As it turns out, Mars is a good candidate. Our rover Opportunity did indeed 2004 find some very suggestive irregularities on one of it's many rock encounters. Irregularities with a strong resemblance to crinoids, and would probably also be interpreted as such, were they found on Earth. 

The original image features three distinct fossil candidates. 

Zoom in on the "crinoid". <---> A specimen found on Earth. 

Unfortunately all we can do is speculate, since they only lasted for approximately 3.5 hours before someone in a NASA control room decided that they should all be sanded down to dust. 

Dr. Hoover probably isn't alone in questioning the bizarre decision-making. Just imagine an archaeologist reaching for a hammer and smash the newly found discovery to pieces as soon as she laid her hands on it. The logic simply doesn't add up.

3,5 hours after the spectacular find the three potential candidates were literally turned to dust. 

Hardly eyebrow raising, NASA chooses silence when called into question. Dr. Hoover however claims that an unofficial explanation was given to him by a colleague who stated that they were looking for remnants of coal in order to ensure that they were fossils. But why look for coal traces when [according to the video] it's not necessary to determine whether they are fossils or not? And even if this was the case it certainly seems rather drastic to settle for this method knowing the samples would be forever annihilated in the process.

Personally I don't see any good reason to doubt Dr. Richard B. Hoovers research and of course have to concur to the fact that other non-Earthly life indeed is a reality. However, what I find even more intriguing is the insinuation that there appears to be forces that not only oppose the idea of other-wordly life, but actively suppress it, regardless of the increasing amount of good data that favors a living cosmos.

Ashtar Galactic Command speaking

Recently when enjoying an after work beer with a colleague of mine, the topic of UFOs arose. Even though he hadn't done any research into the subject, he was convinced that mundane explanations i.e. weather balloons, Venus, delirium etc. sufficiently could account for the phenomena. I took it all with ease, because when it comes to these matters this is by far the most common response you'll get.

I do however find it perplexing, that the main reason for the dismissiveness almost always stems from failed expectations. ”Why don't they land on the White House lawn (and hold a Press Conference)?” is the classic question which presupposes that an otherwordly intelligence, would they find their way here, obviously would chose a suitable metropole for landing and make itself known on a global scale.


(Apparently, it all comes down to a curious question of communication.)


The problem here lies in what we take for granted. Even if another intelligence could and also wished to communicate with us, the circumstances for this to occur are seldom discussed. Perhaps we overlook our own part in this as well; after all, communication requires two active parties. 

Personally I'm very fond of the idea that communication may be proceeded only under circumstances which leaves room for doubt, thus leaving our free will intact. Needless to say, the idea of information coming through human sources, for example psychic and channeled data, indeed appeals to me. Fascinating material are to be found from mentioned sources. As long as one watchfully pay attention to what's actually being presented as well as the environment surrounding its source, it's not very difficult to defend the intellect against the all too common nonsense. 

--

One of my favourite cases featuring information through doubtful means is known as the Southern Television broadcast interruption. On the 26th of November, 1977, the audio signal of an English news broadcast was hijacked by someone calling himself Vrillon, a representative of the Intergalactic Federation: Ashtar Galactic Command. Only the sound was interrupted, which means that the video broadcast kept rolling as Vrillons enigmatic voice conveyd a 6-minute-message of New Age-nature.

Nevermind the gray, the guy to the right seem to be the more accurate depiction of the Messenger.

Considering that the radio waves were transmitted through air, they were also vulnerable for interception, although an advance transmitter nearby as well as a great deal of expertise must've been necessary to pull it off. Not surprisingly the incident was therefore quickly dismissed as a hoax, lacking any conceivable alternative explanation.

Up until today, a suspect has never been identified. Taking into account the considerable amount of time that has passed since this happened, it's also unlikely that we'll ever find someone accountable for this. Hence the mystery remains. 

Regardless of the true origin of the monologue, I would like to suggest that the actual content of the message is what's actually important here. Looking beyond the distracting (and creepy) circumstances, one should soon recognize that profound wisdom is being shared. 

Timeless words of love.

What greater message could one convey ...

Ancient Universe

The mainstream cosmological model, widely referred to as the Big Bang-theory, tells us that the Universe is roughly 14 billion years old. A number that doesn't exactly make sense both according to science, as well as from a philosophical point of view, as we shall see. 

The datings are, among other things, based upon our understanding of the properties of light. Mainly the concept of redshift, which means that the distance of a stellar object, can be estimated by the wave length of the light it emits. 

Some of the most remote objects in the visible Universe are called quasars. These objects have redshifts which put them 10 billion light years away from us. On top of that they are extraordinary bright, which suggests that they are several hundred (even thousand) times more energy containing than the Milky Way galaxy. Go figure.

A quasar.

The recently deceased astronomer Halton Arp was one of few in this field who maintained a critical stance against the Big Bang-theory. He based his critique on observations he'd made when gathering pictures of galaxies. Many of the galaxies he observed showed seemingly connecting "bridges" between them and nearby quasars. Considering that the most distant galaxies he detected were approximately 200-300 million years away, they couldn't have any connection with each other what so ever - at least according to the Big Bang-enthusiasts.

 The NGC 7603 galaxy clearly shows a bridge between itself and a quasar.

The NGC 7319 galaxy even has a quasar in front of it.

Arp suggested that quasars derive from galaxies, thus implying a vastly younger age for these objects, and more importantly, that the mechanisms causing redshift aren't fully understood. He proposed that inherent characteristics could be responsible, although unsure of what exactly.

Furthermore, independent observations indeed support a new take on the nature of quasars. Early last year a large quasar group was detected in a rather concentrated area of the night sky; and if we are to believe that these objects are as massive as mainstream cosmology suggests, they constitute 5% of the visible Universe. A fact that directly contradicts the Cosmological Principle which states that matter should be evenly distributed throughout space.

...

Regardless of what's true, I'm intuitively inclined to favor an ancient Universe. The whole notion of dating the Universe through our puny Earth-perspective is not only naïve, but also absurd when we obviously haven't a clue about the nature of time in the first place.

Besides, it's only fair to assume that Existence foregoes Time.  

∞