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To "Face" or not to "Face"?
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Part of Viking image 70a13 showing “Face” at Cydonia. Contrast was adjusted separately on sunlit and shadowed (outlined) sides to bring out details of both at comparable lighting levels. Bright border of outline is an artifact of brightening everything inside the outline.
Uno studio del Dr Tom Van Flandern che pubblichiamo per rendere omaggio ad un notevole sforzo logico, deduttivo e matematico. Leggete e poi, se volete, diteci che cosa ne pensate.
The MGS spacecraft took a high-resolution photo of the “Face on Mars” in April, 1998. That image suffered from four handicaps: a low viewing angle; a low Sun angle from the direction under the “chin”; an almost complete lack of contrast; and enough cloudiness to scatter most of the light and eliminate shadows. To add to these difficult circumstances, JPL-MIPL personnel, apparently judging that the controversy over artificiality would not be ended when the actual photo was released, processed the image through two filters having the effect of flattening and suppressing image details. This step is documented at a JPL web site. Here we do image processing correctly and present the results of computer corrections to compensate for the poor lighting and low viewing angle. The actual image shows clearly the impropriety of the JPL-MIPL actions because the visual impression of artificiality persists. However, appearances after a discovery are not a valid basis for drawing conclusions, but only for forming hypotheses for further testing. This is called the a priori principle of scientific method. The 1976 Viking imagery allowed the formation of competing hypotheses, natural vs. artificial origin, and tests to distinguish them. When applied to the high-resolution MGS image of the Face, all artificiality predictions were fulfilled despite a lack of background noise. The combined a priori odds against a natural origin of the Face on Mars are 1021 to 1.
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