52 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
52 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
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July 8, 1988
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SOME SEE GLIMPSE OF LIFE IN 'FACE' OF MARS
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AP and UPI
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WASHINGTON - Unusual formations on the surface of Mars - including a
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mile-long rock shaped like a human face - may have been carved by a lost
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civilization, four scientists said yesterday.
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The scientists, including a former astronaut, said at a news conference
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that the chances are better than 50-50 that the structures were made by
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intelligent beings.
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The scientists said that a photograph taken of the Martian surface in
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1976 by NASA's Viking spacecraft clearly shows a face that could have been
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carved out of a Martian mountain a half-million years ago.
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The sphinx-like image that stares outward from the planet may be part of
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a complex of buildings, as evidenced by other unusual formations nearby, the
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scientists said.
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Brian T. O'Leary, a former astronaut and an expert on Mars, said there
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is sufficient uncertainty about the origin of the rock face that it should
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be a major target for future spacecraft sent to Mars.
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O'Leary said last January he asked Soviet space scientists who were
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preparing to send probes to Mars to examine the area where the face appears.
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He said the Soviets were interested, but replied that their spacecraft was
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not technically designed to study the Cydonia region of Mars, where the
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sight is located.
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The Soviets launched a probe toward Mars yesterday and plan to launch a
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second one later this month.
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The news conference yesterday was prompted by a recent study of the
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Viking photographs conducted by Mark Carlotto, an optical engineering
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expert.
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In an article published in Applied Optics, Carlotto said that a computer
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enhancement of the Viking photographs shows that the face and various other
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nearby features appear to have been carved by "intelligent design."
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Yesterday, Carlotto told reporters that a sophisticated statistical study of
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the shapes clearly shows that "the face is not natural."
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Richard Hoagland, founder of a private organization of scientists called
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"The Mars Project," said that in addition to the face there is "a complex of
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unusual objects" at the Cydonia site. The complex includes a five-sided
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mountain that resembles a pyramid and a massif he believes could have been
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part of an astronomical marker.
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Hoagland said that a line drawn from the center of the city, across the
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face to the massif, or cliff, would line up exactly with the Sun at the
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moment of Mars' summer solstice, as it would have occured 500,000 years ago
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- an alignment it is extremely unlikely could occur naturally.
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(Source: The San Diego Union - July 8, 1988)
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