Humanity has been dreaming of Mars, it seems, since ancient times. And now we are working on how to make a manned flight there. However, supporters of conspiracy theories and simply madmen are already ready to tell you that humanity has been to Mars for a long time. These crazy, but very interesting stories will remain stories. At least until we finally step onto the surface of the Red Planet. For now, let's look at 10 of the most interesting theories related to our space neighbor.
Phobos is a space station
When the European Space Agency came out in favor of the hypothesis of the cavity of the Martian satellite Phobos, this assumption was quite consistent with the discoveries of the Soviet astrophysicist Joseph Shklovsky, which he made in the 1960s. Shklovsky not only believed that Phobos was hollow, he was also interested in its unusual orbit. The scientist even at some point suggested that this satellite could be of artificial origin.
Many years later, this theory again captured the minds of many ufologists, alien hunters and even supporters of paleontact (people who believe that intelligent beings of extraterrestrial origin visited the Earth in the past). One of the theories born on this wave says that Phobos was specially placed in such an orbit and in fact is some kind of ancient space station, perhaps once used as a starting point for a space mission or as a kind of device collision avoidance with other space objects, for example, asteroids.
According to a more common idea, the internal emptiness of Phobos may indicate that there is water or other liquid inside the satellite. According to another assumption, the satellite of Mars was formed from large fragments of asteroids, and the void inside was formed naturally. In other words, Phobos is more of an ordinary dense pile of stones, and not some disguised Death Star.
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It should be noted that many space probes were launched to Phobos, however, all of them, in some strange way, faced various system failures and failed, which ultimately, of course, led to mission failures. For some people, these events are not accidental. Such people believe that all these events prove the artificial nature of the satellite, which remains active and unfriendly to intruders.
Sphinx and pyramids of Mars
It turns out that a "sphinx" was discovered on Mars, next to which a pyramid is located.
Despite the fact that most researchers and experts agree that the pyramids are just mountains that formed naturally, some people believe that such smooth and clear lines, as well as the size of these structures, make them structures (then there are artificially created structures)! The possibility that these objects are volcanoes is also unlikely, since astronomers have studied the Red Planet quite well and can confidently say that the only volcanic region of Mars is located in a place called the province of Tarsis, which is 3200 kilometers from the pyramids that were discovered in a place called Kydonia. God does not create straight lines - say supporters of the theories of the Martian pyramids and the Sphinx.
Let's assume that there is indeed a sphinx and pyramids on Mars. Do they have anything in common with the Sphinx in Egypt and the pyramids at Giza? As you might have guessed, there are those who believe in this. Such people claim that the capital of Egypt, Cairo, sounds like al-Qahira in Arabic, which in turn translates as "Victorious" or, more interestingly, "the place of Mars". Some also claim that the sphinx at Giza was once painted red. And as the last "proof" they cite the fact that in front of the supposed pyramids on Mars there is an increased number of stones. Are these stones natural objects? Or are they part of some kind of collapsed structure of an ancient civilization?
Some people, after studying the images of the Kydonia region, claim that they not only noticed the presence of a third pyramid, but also note that the location of these three pyramids correlates with the location of the pyramids in Giza. NASA claims that since some of the images turned out to be too blurred, some people begin to experience pareidolia - to see objects that are actually nothing in reality, but are only random outlines and shapes.
Project "Red Sun": a secret manned mission to Mars
According to a story that first emerged in 2011, there was a secret mission to set up a Mars base in the 1970s.
Following the Apollo 17 mission, the last manned mission to the moon, NASA began conducting secret space missions that were not reported to the public. One such mission was the Red Sun Project, an unprecedented joint venture between the United States and the Soviet Union to begin the colonization of Mars. According to this story, the first group of cosmonauts and astronauts arrived on the Red Planet at the end of 1971 and were exploration. The second mission began in August 1973 with the launch of the Columbus ISV with two American astronauts (Commander Elliot See and pilot William Rutledge) and Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Ilyushin.
Shortly after this story appeared on the Web, a video of an alleged NASA training flight of the Red Sun program appeared on YouTube. Of course, a dispute about the authenticity of the film immediately broke out. Most people agreed that this is a "duck", although, admittedly, very high quality.
This story was published by the Italian UFO hunter Luca Scantambulo, and his informant was Rutledge, the pilot of the Red Sun mission. Rutledge also talked about several other top-secret projects, including one that found an alien base on the moon. Rutledge later made a short statement:
“I leaked the leak. What will NASA and USAF do now? An attempt to block its publication or to sue me will be direct proof of its truth. Now they can say whatever they want it to be a joke or a fake."
NASA employee saw humans on Mars in 1979
In 2014, one woman, who introduced herself as simply Jackie, called the American radio station Coast To Coast AM and stated that humans had been to Mars in 1979 and, more interestingly, she had witnessed the event.
Jackie stated that at the time she was working for NASA and her main job was receiving telemetry from spacecraft. While performing her duties, she saw two people walking on Mars via NASA's live feed. The woman assures that both of them were wearing spacesuits, but not quite as obese as one would expect to see in an ordinary astronaut. According to Jackie, people walked along the horizon in the direction of the Viking rover.
Jackie vowed that 6 other NASA employees were witnessing this event with her. When these people tried to quickly inform everyone else about what they saw and leave the room, they found that the front door was locked, and paper was hung on the window of the door so that no one else could look into it or enter it.
Of course, until now, none of these 6 alleged "employees" have contacted Jackie to confirm her words with her.
According to Gilbert Levin, there is hidden life on Mars
American engineer Gilbert Levin is best known for his book "Complexity Analysis of the Viking Labeled Release Experiments", in which he seems to have proved that there was life on Mars in 1976.
The book tells about an experiment called "Labeled Release", which was carried out using the first Viking rover. Levin says that using methods that were accepted and approved by the aerospace agency NASA, the experiment showed the presence of organic life in samples of Martian soil, which were taken shortly after the rover landed. However, the other two experiments carried out at the same time did not coincide with the results of the first, and therefore the Labeled Release experiment was not taken seriously and was subsequently forgotten.
Despite his reluctance to fully agree with Levin, Chris McKay, a fellow at NASA's Ames Research Center, once said that it is possible that the results of two other tests that NASA conducted could be wrong. He noted that the control study was conducted in the Chilean Atacama Desert. It used exactly the same equipment that was used on the rover, but it did not show any organic molecules, even though it is known that the Atacam soil does contain organic life.
Panspermia theory: we all came from Mars
In 2013, two different and very prominent scientists unexpectedly "approved" the controversial theory of panspermia, according to which life on Earth did not appear, but came from another place (in this case from Mars) in the form of molecular forms riding on an asteroid, which populated these molecules our planet. Both scientists - one of them Steve Benner, who studies the nature of life, and the other - Christopher Adcock, the lead author of the analyzed study - agreed that all this is very, very likely.
The very theory of panspermia has its origins in the 5th century BC, when the ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras made a reference to it, although not in such details as it appears now. It has survived many centuries and has reached our days. When asteroids fell to Earth in 1984 and 1996, in which organic molecules were found, the theory of panspermia gained popularity again.
Most modern scientists now agree that Mars was once, billions of years ago, a completely different planet. It had a dense atmosphere and oceans of liquid water. And perhaps, given all this, this planet could support life. Only the dispatch of manned missions to the Red Planet can provide irrefutable evidence or disprove this theory.
Martian nuclear war
In 2014, plasma particle physics professor John Brandenburg stated that Mars has experienced at least two large nuclear explosions as part of its history. As evidence of his theory, Brandenburg referred to the presence of a high concentration of xenon-129 in the atmosphere, as well as an increased concentration of uranium and thorium in the planet's soil. Moreover, unlike other scientists, Brandenburg does not believe that these explosions could have happened in any natural way.
It all started with the fact that in 2011 Brandenburg announced that the regions of Kydonia and Utopia on Mars had found signs that would indicate the presence of an advanced ancient humanoid civilization here. In addition, there was a probable nuclear disaster here. And although Brandenburg initially suggested that this nuclear catastrophe was most likely natural, something strange about these regions haunted him, so he continued his research.
By 2014, Brandenburg was already clearly convinced that these two places contained signs of nuclear disaster and even more strongly believed in the ancient civilization that existed here. Brandenburg said he believes the explosions were not natural, but rather targeted. In his opinion, he found strong evidence that very high yield atomic bombs were used for explosions. Moving further in his reasoning, he also stated that, most likely, these attacks were carried out by another alien race than some kind of organic AI.
Brandenburg's theory is very popular with proponents of various conspiracy theories, but his conclusions have not attracted the attention of a single famous scientist.
Strange "find" on Mars
In September 2015, UFO seekers, analyzing photographs of the Martian surface, found, as it seemed to them, nothing less than a "stargate", half buried under the ground. People, before they made such conclusions, were primarily attracted by the very smooth lines of the object. In addition, the photo also noted "a site that resembles parts of a long-destroyed roof of a structure." In the center of the site was a strange circular structure resembling a gate.
Although these crazy theories are quite consistent with the assumptions that ancient civilizations once existed on Mars, in this particular case this "observation" has no scientific basis and, more importantly, no evidence. Even if it was proved that this object is of artificial origin (which in itself would be an incredible discovery), then there is no reason to believe that this structure is some kind of portal to other worlds. For the sake of interest, it is worth noting that in the ancient writings found on Earth, it is often said about such "tunnels" between our planet and Mars, which ultimately makes such "finds" even more interesting and mysterious.
Nevertheless, the same NASA does not seem to have any comments on this matter, but some conspiracy theorists suggest that the agency is simply very afraid of these ancient technologies and therefore is trying to get to Mars as quickly as possible before someone else does it.
The face and ancient city of Kydonia
Perhaps the most striking mystery of the Red Planet in the eyes of the modern world was the discovery of a "face on Mars", which was first shown to the world in 1976 among the many photographs that were taken during the mission of the Viking rover. When they first saw it, most people agreed with the opinion that in the photograph of the Martian surface, they really see an object resembling a face. Further study of the region of Kydonia, where the "face" was discovered, showed that this object is nothing more than a play of light. And photographs that were obtained later, in 1998 and 2001, confirmed this.
Nevertheless, conspiracy theorists say that the new pictures were deliberately taken from different angles so that it seemed that this is not a face. In addition, the object's lines were too clear to make them think. Lines that nature cannot create.
Perhaps even more doubtful is the statement of conspiracy theorists that the photographs in the immediate vicinity of the face "clearly" show the remains of the ancient year, as well as the aforementioned pyramids. According to the "experts", such an unusual number of "structures" found here may speak of the wreckage of the ancient destroyed buildings of the city, where an ancient civilization lived several thousand years ago.
Researchers claim that before the last pole shift of Mars, the city and face were located directly on the Martian equator and this was not at all coincidental. Graham Hankon, Robert Beauval and John Grigsby even wrote The Mars Mystery-A Tale Of The End Of Two Worlds, which states that the objects found are indeed the remains of an ancient civilization.
Many strange objects seen on Mars
From the Viking space missions to the present day, people have had the opportunity to view thousands of images of the Martian surface. And although in most photographs Mars looks like a lifeless desert, a world of sand and stones, in some photographs you can still see very strange and sometimes even mysterious objects.
In 2015, for example, a photograph appeared that depicted objects resembling pillars or even columns with "petroglyphs" painted on them, very similar to the ancient Egyptian ones. In the summer of that year, all social media was rocked by a photograph, which, according to some, clearly shows a female figure in a mountainous area. Years earlier, an image appeared on the Web, which also supposedly captured a woman walking on the surface of the Red Planet.
There have been many photographs in which, some have claimed, objects that resemble the remains of human bones and even skulls are visible. On others, someone "saw" Martian animals (lizards and even rats). In 2015, some big-eyed enthusiast spotted a Mars crab on the surface of Mars.
According to the official version, all these "findings" are a simple play of light, but researchers and conspiracy theorists believe that the camera cannot be fooled, and in fact, the archives of NASA contain much more interesting photos and data that are not reported to the world.
NIKOLAY KHIZHNYAK
