Mars has a “happy face”! – The global news channel

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NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) first recorded a “smiley image” in 2011, using the powerful HiRISE (High Resolution Science Imaging Experiment) camera.

Researchers compared the image of the crater from October 2011 to an image from December 13, 2020 and reported that it was larger.

The growing “smile” is actually caused by thermal erosion, as carbon dioxide evaporates and more soil is exposed. The “nose” on the face also went from two small dots to a big depression.

MRO began to analyze Mars shortly after arriving in 2006.

“You can see how nine years of this thermal erosion has made the face ‘mouth’ bigger,” said Ross Bayer, a planetary scientist at SETI’s Sagan Center. In 2020, the two depressions “grew and merged,” Bayer noted.

“Measuring these changes during the Martian year helps scientists understand and eliminate annual polar frost precipitation. Observing these sites over long periods of time helps us understand long-term climate trends over the region. red planet, ”Bayer said.

The “smile” in the figure looks larger due to the amount of frost lost due to thermal erosion, revealing more area.

And although it evaporates elsewhere on the planet, carbon dioxide ice forms near the poles – and moves throughout the year with climate change – showing certain “features.”

The facial features we see actually represent different heights and densities of different ice on the surface.

Bayer explained that the “blobby” characteristics of the polar cap are due to the removal of carbon dioxide by the sun in these circular patterns.

This means that carbon dioxide goes directly from a solid state to a gaseous state without turning into a liquid, causing further soil erosion.

Seeing human faces and other familiar images in landscapes and on inanimate objects is called pareidolia, and is rare when it comes to Mars.

And in late December, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express satellite captured an image of what looks like an angel, with a halo and wings, near the south pole of the red planet.

The angelic figure was visible due to the pattern and composition of the nearby dune fields rich in dark rock minerals such as pyroxene and olivine.