Martian illusions and earthly delusions



    Over the past six months, the yellow press has pleased several sensational finds on Mars. First they found a bison, then a crab, examined a flying stone ball, and then they saw a woman in a dress. Today we will analyze these “discoveries” and think about why such news will continue to appear.

    Once I have already sorted out several “dinosaurs” and “statues” on Mars . But the world’s Internet continues to give rise to new reasons for thinking about people's readiness to err.

    All the sensational news about the finds on Mars are created according to one pattern and to the same degree have no connection with reality. But the inattentive reader subconsciously forms a steady idea that “there is something there, because so many strange finds do not happen just like that.” A more advanced one may say: “Let some finds be just illusions, but not all, there are too many of them.”

    One can agree with the thesis “it doesn’t just happen”, but this “not just like that” is not connected with the real Mars, but only with the desire of some media to raise ratings with cheap sensations due to the centuries-old dream of mankind about meeting Martians.



    The pattern for the appearance of such news is simple: there are several Youtube channels and sites on the network, the creators of which call themselves couch archaeologists and look at pictures of rovers with tenacity worthy of a more useful application. Pictures are all open, which does not stop conspiracy theorists from constantly accusing NASA of their concealment. The search is conducted on the principle of “find something familiar”. Since “sofa archaeologists” do not go far from their sofa, they don’t know much. They do not know cross-bedded sandstones, eolites, or sedimentary rock formation processes. But they know the boots, skulls, hamsters, Obama, ships from Star Wars, women (at least what they look like) - they find it.

    The search is almost always carried out at the limit of camera resolution when JPEG compression artifacts are woven into the muddy details of the Martian surface, which facilitates the work of the fantasy in the search for familiar images. Indeed, in good resolution, a stone similar to a bird will be just a stone. And if you go further away, you can start screaming about the beginning of Martian ornithology.



    Despite the absurdity of such searches, the activities of the “couch archaeologists” are closely monitored by editors or journalists of several yellow tabloids such as the Daily Mail or Komsomolskaya Pravda. Having found a suitable topic, they write the same type of news: “Internet users are discussing a new sensational find of the rover ... NASA scientists declined to comment or explained everything with the play of light and shadow.” It is especially funny if ufologists have found something in the pictures a year ago. Then the phrase “Pictures were taken a year ago, but published only now” is added to the news, as if NASA is publishing pictures on the sites of “couch archaeologists”.

    And ufologists and journalists do not want to verify the accuracy of the find. Ufologists do not want to part with their illusions, and journalists hide behind the fact that they write about “They are discussing on the Internet ...”, and not “Mars rover found ...”. Although logic suggests that since the rover makes dozens of frames almost every day, the same stone can appear in different images from different angles and at different times of the day. This does not always happen, but very often. As a result, after a careful check, it turns out that all the sensational finds are either illusions of similarity that arise only when viewing from a certain point and at a certain time of the day, or just something unclear, but similar to something, and it does not seem reliable to verify possible. Of course, scientists are engaged in more important things than disassembling all cases when something seemed to someone,

    And I will not refuse. Therefore, we consider a few recent examples of “sensational discoveries” on Mars, with their full disclosure.

    An animal on Mars



    In May, the news "Opportunity found a large animal" spread on the Internet. I do not know how much you can not trust your eyes and reprint the same nonsense about a bear or a bison. It was immediately obvious to me that this is a large black stone, and the illusion of the animal’s legs arises from several stones lying in the foreground. If it is godless to unscrew the brightness in the photo, then the light stones will disappear leaving only a shadow between themselves, which someone took for the legs of the "bison".



    Fortunately, the rover removes a lot of sincerity. For example, the same "bison" is visible in the same place a week before the day when its "legs" grew.



    Stereo shooting with mast cameras allows you to assess the prospect of the terrain and see how a group of small stones "moves out" if you look at a slightly different angle, and it becomes obvious that the "legs" do not belong to the "bison".



    Crab on Mars

    Unfortunately, such a recheck is not always possible. For example, some Martian enthusiasts found in the pictures what seemed to them an unusual result of the creation of Martian life or civilization. After manipulating in Photoshop, they showed the world a picture of a fossilized creature similar to a crab, which is hidden in the shadow of rocks or a star-shaped medallion with the profile of some Martian hero.



    If you look at the original image, you can see that some of the "legs" of the crab are just JPEG compression defects that turned into "legs" only after working diligently in a photo editor.





    Unfortunately, Curiosity did not take more detailed pictures of this area, and no return is expected, therefore, we will not be able to finally answer the question, what is there such a black and white. At the same time, we have a lot of examples of how amazing and intricate forms the deposits of light gypsum in dark Martian sandstone take. If you step away and turn on your imagination, and here you can see a lot of Martian inhabitants and the results of their creative activities.



    Flying Stone Ball on Mars

    Another find is also taken in one copy. But to understand the illusion, a little thought is enough.



    In the summer, the media spread the news that ufologists found, in the published Panorama of Curiosity , what seemed to them the unconditional evidence of UFOs on Mars - the "flying stone ball." In the photo you can see a stone with a shape close to the ball. Under it (more precisely, in front of it) another stone was successfully located, the shaded side of which seemed to ufologists and journalists the shadow of a flying ball.



    The illusion is really funny. To understand it, first you need to think about a ball that casts a quadrangular shadow. But this could still be attributed to the roughness of the terrain. But the angle of incidence of the sun’s rays can’t be written anywhere. If desired, you can consider the direction of the shadows falling from other stones in the vicinity. The illumination of the "ball" tells us that the shooting was not done at noon, which means that the shadow cannot lie steeply beneath it.



    Woman on Mars.

    Perhaps this is the most epic and funny yellow-newspaper sensation. The scheme is the same: ufologists => Western journalists => ours.





    Looking through the initial images of the rover, one involuntarily asks the question: how in such images you can see what some media write about? It needs a very rich imagination and a complete shutdown of common sense. But they see it! And they write. And reprint. And they read. And they believe ...



    Even if you take pictures for the same day, but at a different time of the day, there will be nothing left of the “female” illusion.



    But the rover was in that place for three weeks, so, if desired, you can find a picture of the same place, but in higher resolution.



    A soaring spoon on Mars.



    This is literally yesterday's news. The only example where journalists are the main culprit in speculative news. “Spoon” was found by users of the American “ Planet Community ” forum" There, quite adequate people communicate, including NASA scientists, and they reacted to the find with an irony in the style of “ Haha, look, spoon .” Pointing to a curious pattern of wind erosion on Mars.

    In that place you can see a lot of such “soaring objects”, even more impressive than the “spoon”. At the same forum, on the previous page, “ pencils ” were discussed, but journalists clung to a “spoon”.



    We have before us a good example of how minerals resist the destructive effects of wind. Apparently, the material of the “spoon” turned out to be more stable than the “table” on which it lay. This could not have happened on Earth due to rains and a stronger wind. Therefore, such “spoons” demonstrate how calm and dead the planet is.



    The funniest thing is that after reading this material, everyone who believes in Martians, hopes to see the ruins of their civilization and expose the conspiracy of the insidious NASA, they will think: “Well, yes, this time not Martians, but there are a lot of strange finds, there can't be everyone an illusion or just stones. ” So I want to answer: Maybe! I gave these examples to show how such news is created, how sensations are drained from the finger and JPEGa artifacts. Science differs from sitting on the sofa in that it not only searches, but also carefully checks the accuracy of the finds. By all available means. But if ufologists and journalists are engaged in rechecking, then they will immediately run out of sensation.

    Therefore: to be continued.

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