For centuries, humans have seen strange phenomena on Mars' surface. It could be that Mars is closer than Earth to a habitable planet or it could simply be because it's close enough for us to take a good look.Whatever the case, Earthlings have been tricked time after time by the Martian's rocky surface and their own psychology. However, each sighting has been completely disproved.Are Earthlings simply looking for their next-door neighbours in this vast universe? It seems so, if you look back at the history of Martian illusions and human delusions.Related: NASA's Curiosity Rover may have detected 'alien burp'Land and seaMars in the spring. William Herschel believed that the land was in the light and the oceans were in the dark. Image credit: NASASir William Herschel was a well-known British astronomer who wrote in 1784 that Mars' dark areas were oceans while its lighter areas were land. NASA reports that he believed Mars was home to intelligent beings living in a similar environment to ours. Herschel's theory dominated for over a century. Other astronomers claimed that vegetation could be seen in areas that were considered to be land. His other contributions to astronomy, which earned him the title of the namesake for two powerful observatories, were enough to keep his theories about Martians at the top of his biography.Canali vs. canalsA 19th century drawing of Mars, showing the "canals" and dark regions. Image credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesGiovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer, observed grooves in Mars' surface during its close approach to Earth in 1877. He used the Italian term "canali" which means channels. This translated into English to mean "canals", leading many English-speaking people to believe that Mars was home to intelligent life.Percival Lowell (1895) was an American astronomer who presented diagrams of the canals in his book "Mars." He then argued his theory in "Mars as The Abode Of Life" (1908). NASA claims that the excitement over the completion of the Suez Canal, an engineering feat of its time, further fuelled the inaccuracy.In the early 20th century, the theory was disproven. Poor-quality telescopes made it clear that pointlike features such as Mars' mountains or craters appear to be connected by straight lines. Later, spectroscopic analysis revealed that Mars' surface was devoid of water.Related: Are humans born on Mars taller than Earthlings when they are alive?The faceThis was captured by NASA's Viking 1 Orbiter spacecraft on July 25, 1976, while it searched for a landing spot for the Viking 2 Lander. NASA image creditIn 1976, NASA published an image of a mountain on Mars. It was taken by Viking 1's spacecraft. The caption described the formation as having eyes and nostrils. The "Face on Mars", which was released by NASA in 1976, still inspires conspiracy theories and myths. Many believe it is an artificial structure that an ancient Martian civilization built.The mountain looks like a face from a bird's eye view because of the shadows. However, from other angles, such as photos taken by Mars Express Orbiter or other spacecraft, it is clear that the mountain looks nothing like a face.Pareidolia, which is the scientific name for seeing faces or other important objects where they aren’t, is a term that scientists use to describe this phenomenon. Scientists believe that face pareidolia is a result of our increased sensitivity to details of human faces. Takeo Watanabe, from the Boston University Visual Sciences Laboratory said it this way: "We have over-learned human face so we can see them where they're not."2001: A Mars treeFrom each season, transparent carbon dioxide ice covers Mars' polar regions. It is heated from below and sublimates (evaporates). The escaping gas creates many channel morphologies. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of ArizonaSeven years before his death, Arthur C. Clarke, the famed science fiction writer and co-creator "2001: A Space Odyssey", announced in 2001 that he had seen patches of vegetation in new photos taken by the Mars Global Surveyor. Clarke stated that he was serious about what he said when he said, "have a really good glance at these new Mars photos." Clarke spoke via telephone during the Wernher Von Braun Memorial Lecture series at Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. "Something is moving and changing with seasons that suggests at most vegetation."He said, "Wherever there is vegetation, you can bet that there will be something eating it." "Yankee go home!" is the sign I am still holding out to hope we will find Martians.Clarke believed he saw branches on Mars' surface. These are what Mars geologists call "spiders". They look similar to branches and can vary in season, but that's because of seasonal melting of carbon dioxide ice cap at Mars' poles. Live Science reported that when the CO2 sublimate becomes a gas, it flows along paths that look similar to branches.Martian personNASA'S Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this westward view from atop a low plateau where Spirit spent the closing months of 2007. CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University)The Mars rover Spirit captured a remarkable sight on its Red Planet home in 2007. It was a man in a robe, kneeling in prayer and wearing a robe. Spirit captured a panorama of Home Plate, a plateau located in the Columbia Hills range within Gusev Crater. The "human" in this image is actually a rock that morphs into a human form in our brains due to pareidolia.Related: Curiosity Rover discovers evidence of Mars past life may have been lostGhandi's face(Image credit to Matteo Ianneo/ESA/Google Maps/Before It’s News)The 1976 Mars face was only the beginning. Google Mars was launched in 2009. It is a map program that was created using compiled satellite images. Users could then explore the Red Planet's surface, looking for interesting bumps and lumps. Matteo Ianneo discovered one such bump and it looked very much like Mahatma Gandhi (Indian independence activist), who was assassinated in 1948.Higher resolution imagery revealed that the shape was not a mountain or a hill but a pit. This does look a lot like a human head from a profile. However, what appears to be an eyes and brows in the Google Mars image are less prominent in the high resolution photo. It's possible that Gandhi is a stretch because his ear is too big. Gandhi also never had a double-chin, but it's easy for us to see how pareidolia works by comparing high-resolution and low-resolution images.Bio Station AlphaDavid Martines spotted a mysterious object on Mars' surface while using Google Mars as a mapping program. Image credit: GoogleYet another piece of evidence was discovered in 2011 that seemed to back the idea that life exists on Mars. A viral Youtube video claimed that an "armchair astronaut" had identified a human or alien base on Mars. He called it Bio Station Alpha. A strange linear structure was found on the Red Planet's surface, as shown in Google Mars.Astronomers identified the structure immediately as a white, pixelated streak that was an artifact of a cosmic radiation in the image sensor of their camera that took the photo. Alfred McEwen is a planetary geologist at Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Lab and director of the Planetary Imaging Research Laboratory.The sun emits cosmic rays, which are energetic particles. As they pass through camera pixels, they create an electric charge that temporarily saturates them. This white streak can be seen in any photo taken at the moment.McEwen stated that compression caused the cosmic radiation artifact to appear more rectangular and "Bio Station-like" when the raw file was converted into a JPEG to be used in Google Mars. After the original source image was identified by Google, it was confirmed that this was the case. It had an obvious cosmic-ray artifact that was processed and turned into the structure the "armchair astronaut” mistakenly thought was a Mars base.A hairy, blue spiderA 2019 image taken by an European Space Agency (ESA), orbiter, seems to show a huge hairy spider stretching out its legs across a Martian mountain.It's almost cooler. These spindly "legs", which appear to be spinning, are actually the tracks of hundreds of small tornadoes or dust devils that have crossed the ridge. Although it is not known why the mountain is so dangerous, ESA scientists believe that the air mass movement around the area may have contributed to the formation and spread of dust devils.Oder a beetle perhaps?(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)It seems that Mars is a popular place to see creepy-crawlies. In 2019, William Romoser (a professor emeritus who studies viruses and other arthropods) made an astonishing claim that he could see beetles, other insects, and even reptiles on Mars.Romoser reached this conclusion after looking at photographs taken by NASA Mars rovers. These photos show a lot of vaguely oval and blobby forms on the Martian surface. Pareidolia strikes again. What else looks like an oval blob? The majority of rocks."I don't believe there are any insects on Mars. Your press release contains photographs that are not convincing. They fall within the range expected for non-insect objects photograph in lowish resolution on Marscapes. This was said by David Maddison at Oregon State University. It is far more prudent to assume that the blobs are just rocks. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"; these pictures are far, far less extraordinary than the others.A big splat(Image credit NASA/JPL/University of ArizonaFinally, it looks like it is. Between July and September 2019, a space craft, a meteor, or fragment of a comet, struck the southern icecap of Mars. This punctured a thin layer ice and sent a cloud of red dust up the hole. It is a dark-red splat, reminiscent of a cartoon character running headfirst into a wall. The splat was captured by HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment), a large camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It measures approximately 0.62 miles (1 km) in diameter.Strange green rock(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)Mars is, as we all know it, the Red Planet. What's the deal with this strange green rock discovered by Perseverance?Everybody would love to know. "Is it something weathered from the local bedrock?" a tweet by the PR team of the rover was posted March 31. Is it a fragment of Mars that was dropped into the area by an impact event far away? Or is it a meteorite?" Or is it something else?It measures approximately 6 inches (15 cm) in length and is located near the landing site of the rover, Mars' Jezero Crater. To vaporize a portion of the rock, the rover has already used a laser to heat it. The chemical composition of the vapor cloud will then be determined by the cameras and spectrometers on board. We may soon find the answer to this mystery.Original publication on Live ScienceEditor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect more recent Martian illusions.
