The Face and the D&M Pyramid Pass Tests
of Artificiality
Though there are at least a dozen highly anomalous objects in the Cydonia
region, because of their striking morphology and poignant symbolism, the
Face and the D&M Pyramid have received the most attention from Cydonia
researchers. Analysis of images containing the two objects has now been
carried out by several investigators, with the resultant data set sufficient
for conducting valid artificiality tests. These artificiality tests provide
the best evidence that the Cydonian landforms are intelligently made.
For instance, in 1997 the former Director of
the Celestial Mechanics Branch at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Dr. Tom Van
Flandern, proposed a series of tests which, if answered in the affirmative,
would strongly indicate an artificial origin for the Face. According to
Van Flandern, each of the tests falls strongly in favor of a non-natural
origin for the structure. Van Flandern's tests(1):
1. Does the Face exhibit bilateral symmetry?
2. Does the Face retain its face-like appearance in three dimensions?
3. Does the Face appear to have a purpose, i.e. is it visible from space
or astronomically aligned?
4. Under fractal analysis does the Face deviate from a natural Mars surface
feature?
5. Is the Face located in a "culturally meaningful" location
(e.g. in the lowest valley or on the equator of Mars)?
6. Is the Face aligned along a meaningful axis (i.e. north-south)?
7. Is the Face part of a complex of structures, as would be expected if
it was built by sentient beings residing on Mars? In other words, is there
a meaningful (rather than random) context in its placement?
The Face clearly passes the first test: computer
enhancements of the Face conducted by Carlotto, DiPietro, Molenaar and
Brandenburg reveal the Face to have a definite symmetry. DiPietro and Molenaar's
stereo imaging and Carlotto's three-dimensional modeling also show that
the Face remains strikingly face-like from all angles, satisfying the criteria
for the second test(2). The Face's placement on
an open plain and its immense proportions make it easily visible from space,
satisfying the third test.
Fractal analysis conducted by Carlotto and TASC colleague Michael C. Stein
suggests that the Face easily passes the fourth test. Fractal analysis
is a type of computer analysis based on the fact that artificial objects
tend to be mathematically different from surrounding terrain. Fractal analysis
is utilized by the U.S. Armed Forces because it useful for targeting objects
(enemy tanks or fortifications, for example) that stand out on satellite
maps because they fail to conform to natural features in the same vicinity.
In Carlotto and Stein's work, fractal analysis of the Face in images 35A72
and 70A13 revealed the Face to be the single most mathematically deviant
feature in the tested region of 15,000 square kilometers. According to
the researchers, the Face stood out from the background terrain more so
than a military vehicle on a battlefield(3).
Tests five and six can also be answered in
the affirmative. According to Van Flandern, the Face, located at 40.89°N,
9.52°W today, did indeed reside in a culturally meaningful location
sometime in the past. Citing research by P.H. Schultz, who demonstrated
that the prior position of the Martian north pole was 45°N., 160°W(4), Van Flandern determined
that the Face used to lie within five degrees of Mars' old equator. The
statistical probability of a random point appearing this near the equator
is only 9%(5).
Further, he discovered, prior to the pole shift, the bridge of the "nose"
on the Face would have been oriented north-south(6).
By virtue of its positioning among several other enigmatic features at
Cydonia (discussed next), the Face also passes Van Flandern's last tests
of orientation and context. For instance, measurements by Dr. Carlotto
showed that the orientation of the primary linear features in four anomalous
landforms at Cydonia is similar to within about 1.6° (three of the
landforms are oriented similar to within 0.1° of each other). Further,
Van Flandern noted, the average orientation of the landforms relative to
Schultz's old Martian equator was only about 11°`5° off of due
north. Thus, the probability of the objects' orientation being culturally
significant (i.e. perpendicular to the equator) rather than chance is about
87%(7).
The D&M Pyramid
In 1988, Mars Mission member Erol Torun provided a detailed analysis of
this 1.6 by 1 mile long, apparently five-sided, pyramid. In an unpublished
report documenting his initial impressions of the strikingly geometric
pyramid, Torun wrote that "this object's five-sided shape and bilateral
symmetry is unlike any landform seen to date in this solar system, and
even small-scale phenomena such as crystal growth cannot explain its [shape]."(8) Perplexed, he admitted
that despite many years of interpreting satellite imagery for the Defense
Mapping Agency, "I…know of no mechanism to explain its formation."(9) Later studies of the
geophysics and geomorphology of Mars-assumed by planetary scientists to
vary only slightly from Earth's due to differences in gravity and atmospheric
density and content-thoroughly ruled out fluvial deposition, aeolian deposition
and erosion, mass wasting and volcanism as causes for the D&M Pyramid's
shape(10).
In their initial report, DiPietro and Molenaar
commented on an apparent "buttressing" visible at the corners
of the massive D&M Pyramid, noting that erosion along a natural pyramid-shaped
mountain should accumulate at the center of the wall rather than at the
corners(11).
Ostensibly, this is true because winds swirling around the mountain's corners
would tend to push debris toward the center of the wall. Likewise, debris
loosened from higher up the mountain should fall away from the edges, accumulating
more toward the middle of the mountain's flat faces, rather than at the
corners.
Taken alone, the D&M's unique shape and
buttressed appearance strongly suggest an artificial origin for this object.
As we will see later, however, it is the D&M Pyramid's positioning
relative to other objects at Cydonia that provides the best evidence of
the landform's artificiality.
(continued in Chapter 1 of The Monkey and
the Tetrahedron...)
====== References=======
(1) Tom Van Flandern, Meta
Research Bulletin 6, no. 1 (1997): 10-13.
(2) Mark J. Carlotto, The
Martian Enigmas: A Closer Look, (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1997),
111-114.
(3) Mark J. Carlotto, The
Martian Enigmas: A Closer Look, (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1997),
59.
(4) P.H. Schultz, "Polar
wandering on Mars," Scientific American 253, Dec. (1985): 94-102.
(5) Van Flandern, Meta Research
Bulletin, 11.
(6) Tom Van Flandern, interview
by Laura Lee, Laura Lee Show, LL Broadcasting, Inc., 1 January 1998.
(7) Van Flandern, Meta Research
Bulletin, 15.
(8) Erol O. Torun, "Preliminary
Investigation of the Geometry of the D&M Pyramid," unpublished
paper (1988), quoted in Hoagland, The Monuments of Mars, 325.
(9) Erol O. Torun, in a July
1988 personal communication to Richard Hoagland, quoted in Hoagland, The
Monuments of Mars, 325.
(10) E. O. Torun, "The
Geomorphology and Geometry of the D&M Pyramid." CompuServe Issues
Forum, Section 10, file name "Pyramid.rsh" (1989).
(11) DiPietro, Molenaar and
Brandenburg, Unusual Mars Surface Features (1988); available from
Mars Research, PO Box 284, Glenn Dale, MD 20769.
