Lights and Shadows: Why Do We See Elephants on Mars?

On April 4, a curious photograph was published on the University of Arizona's High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) website. The HiRISE camera, attached to the NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) that is currently in orbit around the Red Planet, regularly beams back incredibly detailed snapshots of the Martian plains, mountains and valleys. Often, though, the HiRISE survey will turn up a real Martian oddity that kick-starts the imagination and drives speculation (plus inevitable conspiracy theories) across the internet.

This time, HiRISE spotted an elephant on Mars' surface.

Yes, an elephant.

Of course we're not talking about a real elephant; HiRISE scientists had simply spotted a shape on a Martian plain resembling the head, trunk and mouth - plus a strategically placed "eye". Seeing a clever opportunity to teach some Mars geology, HiRISE planetary scientist Alfred McEwen described what had caused the shape of a large (terrestrial) mammal to be etched into the surface of our neighbouring planet.

Source

I just came across this article on Al Jazeera and thought ATS could benefit from reading it. While I'm sure most of us are familiar with the concept of pareidolia it never hurts to have a refresher course. On top of that it makes some good points on the methods and conclusions of xenoarchaeology researchers. If they want their field of science to be taken seriously they actually need to start doing science. As it stands now all they are doing is saying that some object on Mars looks like an object we have on Earth, thus aliens. That's not science and all it's doing is making actual scientists laugh.

Looks like George Bush to me.

reply to post by Xcalibur254


If you think of all the millions of rock formations that are on the planets we can observe, then there's bound to be some that resemble something we recognise by pure chance. Sometimes they are so close to something we know that they do make you think though...

It's clearly not an elephant. It's this:



It's a warning to us. Don't touch any strange looking eggs you might find on Mars, it won't end well.

This is awesome!!



I get matrixing, I'm a paranormal investigator.... So I get it....the elephant...yes...I can see matrix....
However....
The face on mars....to many details in my opinion to b just matrixing...it's even got a Monroe! LoL

Ty.

Btw..doesn't it annoy you when people muck up your post w/ grade school sarcasism and that's it? You want to be funny .....ok. But can u leave some intelligent input to?

reply to post by Xcalibur254


Nice find,

They should know better, as even here on earth, we come across pieces of rock, or even trees, among other objects that have a weird formation or resemblance to some thing, so I do not see the big deal.

Originally posted by tracehd1
This is awesome!!



I get matrixing, I'm a paranormal investigator.... So I get it....the elephant...yes...I can see matrix....
However....
The face on mars....to many details in my opinion to b just matrixing...it's even got a Monroe! LoL

Ty.

Btw..doesn't it annoy you when people muck up your post w/ grade school sarcasism and that's it? You want to be funny .....ok. But can u leave some intelligent input to?

I believe you are talking about me, I meant because it was an elephant and Bush is a republican, and the kind of mascot for Republicans is an elephant..