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NASA / JPL / Univ. of Arizona
A lava flow in Mars' Elysium Planitia region takes on the appearance of an elephant in this picture from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, captured on March 19 and released April 4.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured an elephant on Mars — well, actually, it's an elephant-shaped lava flow in Elysium Planitia on Mars.
The picture provides one more Martian example of the phenomenon known as "pareidolia," in which our eyes and brain can be coaxed to see familiar patterns in unfamiliar settings. Pareidolia is the best explanation for the Face on Mars, the Mermaid on Mars ... and even the Happy Face on Mars.
The Elephant Face on Mars also provides a glimpse of the geological changes that shaped the Red Planet over the course of billions of years.
"Flood lavas cover extensive areas, and were once thought to be emplaced extremely rapidly, like a flood of water," University of Arizona planetary geologist Alfred McEwen, the principal investigator for the orbiter's HiRISE camera, wrote in an image advisory issued on Wednesday.
"Most lava floods on Earth are emplaced over years to decades, and this is probably true for much of the lava on Mars as well," McEwen said. "An elephant can walk away from the slowly advancing flow front. However, there is also evidence for much more rapidly flowing lava on Mars, a true flood of lava. In this instance, maybe this elephant couldn't run away fast enough."
This picture served as today's "Where in the Cosmos" puzzle on the Cosmic Log Facebook page, and it took about an hour for Odies Neel to come up with the full story behind the image. Odies will be getting a pair of 3-D glasses in the mail as a reward — as will Seth Deitch and Jonce Matilovski, who came close to the mark.
Over the past six years, HiRISE (which stands for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) has sent back more than 22,000 images of the Martian surface, including 2,444 3-D anaglyph images that should give those red-blue glasses a good workout. Check out the HiRISE website and NASA's Mars exploration portal page for all the pictures.
There's still more to look forward to on the final frontier: Next Thursday, the big event will be Yuri's Night, a space celebration that commemorates the 51st anniversary of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's history-making orbital flight as well as the 31st anniversary of the first space shuttle flight.
The marketing director for Yuri's Night, Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto, discussed the past, present and future of spaceflight with me on the "Virtually Speaking Science" talk show, which airs on BlogTalkRadio and in the Second Life virtual world. Give a listen to the hourlong podcast, which you can get via BlogTalkRadio or iTunes — and check out Veronica's screengrab of our avatars sitting together in the Second Life auditorium:
Courtesy of Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto
AlanJBoyle Resident and Lunnna Capalini (Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto's avatar) sit together in the Second Life virtual world during the "Virtually Speaking Science" talk show.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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actually, i already saw this for sale on ebay, right between the Jesus-on-a-tortilla and the Abraham Lincoln-in-the-wood-grain-of-a-2x4. it was already up to $5.78
The Question that we need to ask here is "IS IT AN ASIAN or AFRICAN ELEPHANT"
I feel that this is conclusive evidence that life did exist on Mars at some time.
Otherwise haw would the Martian's have even known about Elephants. ?
On the Dark side of Mars is the Rear end of this same Elephant. I rest my case.
So does that explain why Mars is the Red Planet?
And the award for dumbest, most useless news goes to...
http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/06/11058175-what-is-up-with-steven-tylers-tangled-toes
Hahaha ... thanks, Pyngwyn. That was funny.
And though you find this article useless, Mr. Jackhammer, I found it kind of neat. Curiosity and exploration are good things ... vital, even. The world has big problems, always has and always will; that shouldn't mean that everything considered "useless" by some should fall by the wayside.
So, these guys found something cute and interesting in their quest for greater knowledge, and shared it with us. Steven Tyler's toes, I could have done without.
anything about sarah palin.
or snookie
Of course this was made by elephant life on Mars to let others in the Cosmos know they are there. They could push the soil and rock into this shape with their feet and trunks, but they don't really have fingers to make spacecraft, so this is the best they could do.
I KNEW there were elephants on Mars!!! SO it turns out that I'm NOT crazy! Have to go now, it's time for the nurse to give me my medicine. Can't wait for the George Nori show tonight!
that's why Newt Gingrich wants to colonise Mars
What elephant?
Roll Tide
Looks like Babar in a suit
Poor NASA. This is what happens when NASA loses their shuttle program and reverts to hallucination drugs. Congress, please save them and bring back our space program. These minds are too good to waste!
"Poor NASA. This is what happens when NASA loses their shuttle program and reverts to hallucination drugs. Congress,..."
Did we read the same article? No one from NASA said it was actually anything but an old lava flood-plain.
Everything else is really about how the human mind is good at finding recognizable patterns in fuzzy date, even when there are no such patterns. The 'face' on Mars (which did look intriguing...but only at certain lighting and viewing angles), the 'canals' of Mars, the 'Man in the Moon.' (the Lunar Mare are also old lava flood plains)
And doesn't Italy still look like a boot, from Earth orbit? Gee, I wonder who made that...?
And, we continue to have a space program (also a fuzzy concept, that means whatever you want it to mean). We just don't have the Space Shuttle. And we will soon have other spacecraft. Little else has changed.
It seems to be missing the trademark ears or maybe Obama borrowed them.
The first elephant on Mars and probably the last.
No wonder W and Newt want to go to Mars. There is a colony of GOP there. Hence, the GOP is protecting Martian interest on earth. How else we can explain their stand on issues: abortion is bad but killing fully grown human is patriotic. Promoting social order is good but regulating guns, various poisons, unreasonable health care costs, excessive profiteering, etc. all of which destroys social order are bad. We live in the 21st century but promoting medieval ideologies, bigotry, ignorance, blind obedience to authority is good....Maybe we should send to Mars all of the one percent who causes 90% of the earth's problems. LOL.
Ganesha on Mars!
if you tilt your head and squint... it kinda looks like John Holmes in " Hot To Go Pizza Girls "
I think it looks more like the madonna of hey-zeus fame, after a night on the town. Or it could be a picture of how the real jesus looked: elephant man. Or the pope after too many bottles of wine. Then again,...............
My thoughts exactly!
I thought it looked like Jesus? His image is turning up in everything else-tacos, shrouds, corn flakes?
Letting the Light Shine on Mars - Creating a habitat.
http://video.msnbc.msn.c...-news/46895978#46895978
http://www.enviromission...u/EVM/content/home.html
Although the need for such a large facility on Mars would not need to be built right away the same base of design seen in the video could be built on Mars to generate both electrical power and heat.
You will notice that in the movie there are what appears to be greenery underneath of the solar panels.
On Mars the outside perimeter of the tower would be enclosed with Gorilla Glass so that the process of creating oxygen would leak into the Martian atmosphere.
The enclosed facility would create heat that would be piped through the surface of Mars in order to heat the ground as well as being used to heat the facilities that would surround it. The electricity would be used to power many facilities.
Cynobacteria would be introduced into the facility where they would feed off of the carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide to create oxygen.
The heated surface of Mars combined with oxygen would also incite Martian microbial lifeforms to come out of their dormant state and begin moving about that would further incite the process of life to be reborn.
Any type of plant life needed for sustaining life on Mars could be grown under the paneling where animals such as cattle could also be kept for protein or peanuts could be grown if....peanuts would be better. It would be kinda silly transporting cattle to Mars.
The facility would need to be constructed near an region where frozen water was present so that water could be used to water the greenery with.
I am not certain though if water would condense on the surface of the paneling that could then be used to further water the greenery and for drinking uses.
The same process could be used on the Moon to provide humanity with exactly what humans need. Water, greenery,protein and space to branch out from the main trunk.
CLAP * Hands Wide Open.
Great post! See this is the vision we need to embrace for the next couple hundred years, in order to ensure the survival of our species.
While I'm interested in the discoveries being made by space telescopes, we should be focusing on methods of habitation for places in our nearby planetary "neighborhood". We won't be able to get to the far flung planets seen by our billion dollar telescopes for quite some time.
If a dinosaur-killing sized asteroid (you know like the one that created the Gulf of Mexico and killed off almost all life on Earth) rolls around again, wouldn't it be better for us to have multiple planets colonized? Like the saying goes, don't put all your eggs in one basket.
thats the chairman of the RNC trying to get as far away from Romney that he can.
Looks like a carrot.
"Pareidolia is the best explanation for the Face on Mars, the Mermaid on Mars ... and even the Happy Face on Mars."
Uh no.
Pareidolia is best explanation for deliberate disinformation and public apathy.
The Cydonia region of Mars (as well as other areas of obvious artificiality) is not the result of lava flows or lava floods.
Our eyes and brain do not need to be coaxed to see patterns and evidence of life present in these areas. Even adding to the credibility of what is seen is the use of smudging and image tampering of photos taken of Mars using AI software that looks for right angles and symmetry.
There is no need for this if there is nothing that needs to be hidden from the public.
All the wonders and mysteries of Mars will be revealed sooner or later - hopefully sooner.
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/lenin.html
what's next wilie? moon landing hoax?
Actually that was not a hoax.
But seriously Danwill....
It's okay. You can slip back down into your home. Reach up high and slide the rock back over. Everything that you see on TV is true. The media is not controlled at all and we are a totally free society. All is well. No need to question anything. We are truly alone in the universe.
http://www.disclosureproject.org/index.shtml
actually, I seriously doubt that, the universe is just too big for that, too much possibility. now as for "are they here"? I'm considerably more skeptical
Mr. Boyle:
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: You have the coolest job on the planet. I am so envious.
Well done.
Ed
The eye turned clockwise and enlarged, looks a little like, a pirate's head.
That's no elephant... it's clearly Cthulhu.
Obviously this is proof that the ancient Martians sacrificed their world to the Great Old Ones, destroying its capacity to support life, while the survivors fled to Earth.