Mile-Wide Structure On Mars


'FACE' RESTS ON INTELLIGENCE HYPOTHESIS

By Vicki Cooper

''Artists treat facts as stimuli for imagination, whereas scientists use imagination to coordinate facts. ''

-Arthur Koestle

But if the face is real, why doesn't the world know about it? That is indeed the question-one Hoagland says he was asked by none other than the creator of Star Trek, the late Gene Roddenberry. This question, rhetorical though it may be, continues to loom over the intelligence hypothesis that underlies the case for the artificial Face on Mars.

Indeed as face enthusiasts might reasonably wonder, why doesn't the rest of the world get with the program and acknowledge the overwhelming importance of these discoveries, and the crying need for further investigation? One answer might be that most of the world is hopelessly ill-equipped to decipher the language that encodes the "message" The Mars Mission insists is present in the face and related structuresmathematics, or more precisely in this instance, geometry. Hold on to your slide rule and listen up: The face hypothesis as proposed by Hoagland and his colleagues is a long story, an elaborate mental and perhaps spiritual stretch that even a Martian might find exhausting. (The following is a condensed and somewhat simplified description of the working hypothesis behind The Mars Mission analysis. Interested readers seeking more information are advised to consult the references listed at the end of the section.)

Independent examination

As mentioned in the previous article, Hoagland brought his own faculties to bear on the two Viking photos of the face formation and its nearby geological structures, after their initial discovery and subsequent computer enhancements performed by Vince DiPietro and Greg Molenaar. An experienced, imaginative scientific observer with math acumen, he pored over the enhanced imagery and was impressed by the face's clear bilateral symmetry.

Later, he took into account a rectilinear cluster of nearby objects, also studied by DiPietro and Molenaar, among which were pyramidal mounds. He was further astonished by "the fact that the pyramids lay at a 90-degree angle to the centerline of the face. That would have afforded 'them' the best view possible out across this level, highdesert landscape . . .''

Apparently leading off with an hypothesis that intelligent life was present on Mars at one point or another-beings who must have been directly involved with these presumed Cydonian anomalies -Hoagland was able to parlay his first observations into a web of complex geometric alignments and cosmic timetables that at first glance appear to unequivocally support the case for artificiality.

"No man will be found in whose mind airy notions do not sometimes tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of sober probability."

-Samuel Johnson

Yet distinguished voices of assent regarding these theories on the Mars face are noticeably few. The goal all along, Hoagland insists, is to bring the best and most rigorous scientific analysis to bear on the entire enigma, but thus far Hoagland's idiosyncratic views have received little support from space scientists whose work specifically involves planetary studies. NASA, in fact, is politely disdainful of Hoagland and his theories; their prevailing rejoinder holds that as intriguing as the lace appears, the feature is no more than normal erosion, a typical geological process that takes place on planets.

Some scientists will even eschew politeness when offering their readout of the face-and-pyramid theories. Geologist Dr. Michael Carr, who served as the leader of the Viking Orbiter Imaging Team and is

now coordinating the geologists for the Mars Observer, calls the theories "bizarre" and "inane," dismissing Hoagland as no more than artful promoter. "It's incredible people are still believing in this stuff,'' he told UFO. "But I guess I shouldn't be surprised . . . I must have received calls about [the face] for two or three years (after the Viking photos were public). It's all so silly. We never tried to hide that picture. We had it out right away and got a laugh out of it. It looks like a face, too, there's no doubt about it. There's an eagle on Eagle Rock, too!''

Has anyone bothered to check Hoagland's math, which should be key in dismissing his theories once and for all? "Those are fairly simple geometric relationships," was Carr's reply. "But no, I don't know if anyone has [duplicated Hoagland's mathematics]. "

But in the minds of the Mars Missionaries, at least, the number one problem-obtaining scientific verification of the Face hypothesis-has already been solved. ''Our focus has now begun to shift," Hoagland told an audience at the United Nations building in New York during his, lecture there on Feb. 27. "We're now looking at the meaning of this object, including a possible connection with Earth.''

The 'tetrahedral' connection

And the key here, Hoagland continues, is again geometric, the four-planed pyramid known as a tetrahedron. "If you put this object in a sphere, it predicts some remarkable phenomena. The tips of a tetrahedron, placed in the sphere of a planet, touch inside at key latitudes. At those latitudes, something significant occurs.''

In illustrating a somewhat difficult concept, Hoagland and his colleague Erol Torun point to the D&M pyramid, a feature which lies a considerable distance south of the face. Torun, a cartographer with the Defense Mapping Agency (part of the Dept. of Defense), performed a detailed morphological analysis on the D&M pyramid and found it to contain an array of mathematical constants- specifically, the latitude 19.5, a measurement which appears over and over again, in the D&M as well as in other mathematical relationships applied to the so-called Cydonian complex. "There's a pattern,'' Hoagland persists. ''On every major or minor planet we've flown by, looked at or mapped, the 'major [geological] disturbance' lies on or about 19.5 degrees north or south.

What we think it's trying to tell us is that the internal upwelling[s] of energy on a planet . . . are exemplified by what we will now term 'circumscribed tetrahedral mathematics.' "

Higher dimensions?

And here comes a real cosmic stretch: The redundant 19.5 latitude, and the energy upwellings on planets that have been determined to occur at approximately that latitude, might be indicators of places in spacetime where higher dimensions are interfacing with our 3-dimensional realm. That is, certain physical stirrings or events in the cosmos, when seen a certain way, are hypothesized as being "shadows'' of even larger events that are happening on unseen, higher dimensions. The "energy upwellings" are ways these events project back into our own reality. Even stars might be physical "windows" to a higher dimension.

To buttress this unusually far-out idea, Hoagland points to the years-long series of scientific papers which he says have propounded essentially similar theories based on the dynamics of rotational physics. Hoagland, though he steers clear of the UFO field ("a ghetto," he sniffs), still depends on an overarching ET intelligence hypothesis to bind together his elaborate picture of the Martian anomalies.

Implicit in The Mars Mission's current cosmology is the belief that this higher intelligence-an extraterrestrial someone, or lots of someones-in the distant past somehow was privy to profound universal truths, and understood the dynamics of limitless energy suggested by the idea of dimensional interface. According to Hoagland, those ETs just might have planted the seeds of that awareness, set to blossom "at this crucial, defining moment of history" -just when we need it most.

Combined with his years of scrutinizing the Martian structures, this linking concept has propelled Hoagland into the belief that The Mars Mission has indeed secured data suggesting "that at least one planetMars-is somehow connected mathematically with higher dimensions.''

Hearing about these Mars theories for the upteenth time, Carr tried to be open-minded. His conclusion, poles apart from The Mars Mission's, leaves only a tiny opening for such ET dreaming: "You can't rule anything out,'' he admits. "But the probability of the face's artificiality is miniscule."

UFO Magazine Vol. 7 No. 5 1992

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Nearly A Decade Of Investigation

THE CASE FOR MARTIAN ARTIFACTS

By Rosemary Decker

Besides other valuable data, the 1976-'77 Viking probes sent back some 55,000 photos of Mars' surface, among which were two shots of the now-famous "face" that had almost escaped detection entirely. The face, after having been examined briefly by a few NASA personnel, was filed away in the space agency's archives, and labeled simply, "Head." NASA's dismissal was firm: it must have been a "trick of light and shadow" that made it look so uncannily human.

As Vincent DiPietro himself comments in Unusual Mars Surface Features, he had first seen a photo of the face in a magazine in 1977 -and had also dismissed it, ''due to the quality of the magazine." He continues, "Two years later I was thumbing through the archives of the National Space Science Data Center. There before me in black and white was the same serene image of a human-like face against the background of the Martian land surface.

Image enhancement

"The photograph also intrigued Greg Molenaar, a Lockheed computer scientist who suggested a method of improving the image quality. We realized that since no one else had done anything to verify the image, it was up to us. We decided to blend our computer hardware and programming skills toward the study of this single image." Thus began

a ''fantastic adventure'' which, in only a few years, has had far-reaching results.

By 1983, science writer Richard Hoagland -who also says he had dismissed the Face photo earlier, due to its "poor presentation" realized that the NASA image, (Viking frame 35A72), probably did show an artificial, human-visaged construction. By that time, DiPietro and Molenaar had located in the archives a second, confirming photo-frame 70A13- taken 35 days after 35A72, from a sun angle nearly 20 degrees higher. This later frame showed the other eye cavity more distinctly, continuation of the presumed hair or helmet line, and shaping of the chin.

The gaze of the Cydonia "face," looking outward as it does through slightly parted "lips," creates the impression of "speaking" to viewers approaching from space. In searching for its ostensible message, Hoagland and others not then mutually acquainted examined the nearby landscape. Jackpot! Only seven miles west-southwest of the face rose a group of immense four-sided pyramidal objects (a complex which Hoagland dubbed ''The City'') -a bisymmetrical, five-sided pyramid shape, buttressed at each of its corners (and named the D&M pyramid in honor of its discoverers, DiPietro and Molenaar), eastward of the face a long cliff or wall, and due south of that, a large, oddly complex mound (the ''Tholus''), which calls to mind some "mirror images" on earth, the most notable of these being Europe's largest artificially-built mound, Silbury Hill, in the neighborhood in that granddaddy of enigmas, Stonehenge, England.

Confirmation from Mars 'probe'

Like others intensely interested in the enigma, Hoagland is certain that a return Mars probe to take close-up pictures of the Elysium and Cydonia areas, where the ''face'' and what some think are related constructs reside would be imperative if the truth about these strange shapes was to be learned for certain. And like others-even DiPietro and Molenaar with their NASA associations-he finds it extremely difficult to gain serious interest from NASA officialdom toward that goal. (Now, the prospect of the Mars Observer photographing the Cydonia region in close-up becomes even more enticing to proponents of the "face." See article, page 28.

Teamwork has ensued, an according to Hoagland has proven to be of inestimable value. With his colleagues, he set up the Independent Mars Project. This group, with its journal addressed to all interested persons, was succeeded in 1991 by The Mars Mission (not to be confused with the NASA's Mars Observer mission) and its expanding quarterly, Martian Horizons.

In his book The Monuments of Mars (a new, revised edition of which is being published by North Atlantic Books), Hoagland states that a Russian engineer/geologist named Vladimir Avinsky had studied the best photocopies he could obtain of the Cydonia "complex," the face and apparently related objects nearby. In August of 1984, the Soviets' "window an the west" magazine, Soviet Life, carried an article by him entitled, "Pyramids an Mars?"

Proof that his claim to independent discoveries within the Cydonia complex was a truthful one was evident to Hoagland in the poor quality of the photocopies Avinsky had to work from. Despite this limitation and its consequent errors, Avinsky had been struck by the uncanny parallel between the Mars ''pyramids-with-head" and the ancient Egyptian ''pyramids-with-Sphinx'' right here an Earth. In fact, Avinsky went an to dub the Mars face, "the Sphinx.''

Despite ages of erosion-and like the Egyptian Sphinx, an apparent snubbed-off nose! -the Cydonia face appears to be wearing an intent expression, a perception which has intrigued so many of its observers.

Two 'face' books

In 1986 two books came out, almost simultaneously and on opposite sides of the Pacific. Both were (inadvertently) titled, The Face on Mars. The American one was authored by anthropologist Randolfo Pozos, a friend of Hoagland's. The volume published in Australia was the teamed work of Brian Crowley and James Hurtak. While there are, of course, overlaps in data and hypotheses, the two books are largely complementary.

'Mathematical' language

According to Mars Mission researchers, the "language" of the Cydonia structures has proven to be mathematical/symbolic. The independent team, measuring angles, ratios and distances within and between what they view as closely-associated monuments, were very soon struck by the presence of certain angles and ratios-some familiar, others puzzling. (See following article.)

How do we know these mathematical relationships are real, and not just the guesswork of overenthusiastic imaginations? As if to anticipate this question, many angles occur again and again with staggering redundancy.

Asked to look for familiar angles in the monuments, alert school kids would likely find 180 degrees, 90s, 60s and the conspicuous 120 degrees that forms the apex of the D&M pyramid. Less conspicuous, but occurring again and again, are other angles and certain ''universal constants" such as our old friend pi, which we know from our own school days, 3.14, the number we had to multiply times the unknown diameter of a circle to find its circumference. Also found is the less familiar sign e-2.72-the base of natural logarithms. (Readers who side-stepped algebra will have missed this.)

The precise language of mathematics then has been the Mars Mission's basic evidential argument favoring the monuments-especially the Mars ''face'' -as constructed artifacts with a particular message for mankind.

UFO Magazine Vol. 7, No. 5 1992

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'Universal Constants'

Mathematics Of 'D&M Pyramid'

By Tom Denny

While noted scientists may pooh-pooh The Mars Mission's fervent belief in all those martian geometric ''connections'' strewn about in Cydonia, author Rosemary Decker found one mathematician who tentatively corroborates some provocative measurements related to the D&M Pyramid.

As an objective mathematician with no set conclusions about the significance or meaning of the Cydonia features on Mars, I find a link between the ratios of certain universal mathematical constants and elements of the D&M pyramid in Cydonia to be more than coincidental. To cite a few examples:

The latitude of the D&M pyramid is 40.868 degrees north. This degree value is exactly the arc tangent of e over pi ( e/? ). The constant e is the base of natural logarithms used in science and in finance. (Numerically, e is 2.72 and pi is 3. 14, approximately; it can be carried to further decimal points.) e is used in computing population growths, in biology, in physics and computing compound interest rates. Pi is the ratio between the circumference of circle and its diameter. Both e and pi are so basic that they are understood and used by any human culture as they are independent of any particular number-base system. The value of e over pi is also found to be the ratio between the surface area of a sphere and the surface area of a four-sided pyramid called a tetrahedron, when the points of the pyramid are touching the inside of a sphere. Still another tie-in with this e-over-pi ratio is that its arc cosine is 30 degrees, the latitude of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. I find these computations to be accurate; they can be confirmed by anybody with a hand-held calculator. The extreme degree of matching between the latitude of the D&M pyramid (checkable on a Mars map) and the arc tangent of e over pi is a stimulus to look deeper into the Cydonia complex, since the probability of its being mere coincidence is practically nil.

- Tom Denny, presently tutoring algebra, trigonometry and calculus at Palomar Community College, will soon receive his B.A. degree in Astronomy from San Diego State University in California.

UFO Magazine Vol. 7 No. 5 1992