The crater is located in Aonia Terra, a region of the highlands in the highlands of southern Mars (ESA).
A stunning image captured by a spacecraft orbiting Mars captured a crater that looks like a huge, unblinking eye on the surface of the red planet.
The image shows Aonia Terra, a highland region in the highlands south of Mars, and was captured by ESA’s Mars Express on April 25, 2022.
The unnamed 19-mile crater in the center of the image lies in a landscape of winding canals, which probably brought liquid water to the surface of Mars about 3,500-4 billion years ago.
The canals appear to be partially filled with dark material, and in some places appear to be raised above the surrounding terrain.
Researchers say there are a variety of possible explanations for this: possibly an erosion-resistant sediment settled to the bottom of the canals as water passed through them, or the canals were filled with lava later in the story of Mars.
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Inside the crater, a field of dark dunes rests on a lighter surface. On closer inspection, it becomes apparent that the crater is full of more butts and cone-shaped hills.
These are evidence that many different materials accumulate inside the crater.
Aonia Terra is known for its impressive craters. Near the crater shown in this image is the 200 km wide Lowell Crater.
Lowell is thought to have formed nearly four billion years ago, during the “Late Heavy Bombardment” of the Solar System, when a large number of asteroids crashed into rocky planets.
Aonia Earth is named after a feature called Aonia, a dark patch on the surface of Mars that can be seen from Earth, even with rudimentary telescopes.
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Of course, the crater is not an eye, nor in fact biological in any way, but it does highlight the human tendency to see biological features in inorganic objects.
In the 1970s, a NASA image of Mars appeared to show a human-like face, prompting observers to wonder if a lost civilization once flourished on the Red Planet.
The story goes on
Perspective view of the crater, gathered from Mars Express (ESA) data
But the “face to Mars” was not evidence of any Martian civilization; it only showed the human tendency to see human faces in everything from plants to rocks and houses.
A study by researchers at UNSW Sydney has clarified why exactly humans are connected to see faces everywhere.
In an article in the journal Psychological Science, lead researcher Dr. Colin Palmer says that “Face pareidolia,” the phenomenon of seeing faces in everyday objects, is related to how we see and understand real human faces.
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Palmer says: “The pages of websites like Flickr and Reddit have amassed thousands of pictures of everyday objects that look like faces, provided by users around the world.”
“A striking feature of these objects is that they not only look expensive, but can even convey a sense of personality or social significance.
“For example, the windows of a house may look like two eyes are looking at you, and a pepper may have a happy face.”
“This basic pattern of traits that defines the human face is something that our brain is particularly attuned to, and it is likely to be what draws our attention to pareidolia objects.
“But the perception of the face is not just about noticing the presence of a face. We also need to recognize who this person is and read information on their face, such as whether they are paying attention to us and whether they are happy or upset. “
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The researchers found that pareidolia appears to activate the same mechanisms in the brain that extract important social information when one person looks at another.
They tested it through the process known as “sensory adaptation”, a kind of visual illusion where one’s perception is affected by what has been seen recently.
Dr. Palmer believes that facial pareidolia is a product of our evolution, noting that studies have observed the phenomenon among monkeys, suggesting that brain function has been inherited from primates.
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