Mars … the planet of myths and science fiction, "war of the worlds", Martian channels and Tolstoy's Aelita. Not so long ago, our imagination was agitated by the seemingly real possibilities of discovering a civilization of intelligent beings on a neighboring planet. In the works of G. A. Tikhov, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the issues of undersized, blue, blue or violet Martian vegetation clinging to the soil were seriously discussed. Alas, everything turned out to be far from the way we wanted and expected! It was not possible to find any brothers in mind or vegetation on Mars. However, our and American spacecraft, which have been regularly launched to the red planet since 1962, carefully enough "examined" it from close range, landed on the surface of Mars and reported so much surprising that the debate over Martian secrets and mysteries flared up with renewed vigor.
Having debunked some hypotheses, the information received gave rise to many new problems and questions, some of which we will consider below. Oddly enough, many secrets were generated by a detailed space survey of the surface of Mars, which, it would seem, was supposed to reveal secrets. In 1976, the American Viking spacecraft reached the surface of Mars. The landing blocks of the vehicles landed on this planet and conducted a number of studies. At the same time, the orbital blocks revolving around the planet transmitted to Earth about 300 thousand telegraphs of the Martian surface, which were recorded in the memory of computers. It must be said that even to date, only about 25% of the stored information has been converted into images. This is due exclusively to financial problems, since the budget of the Viking program has long been exhausted. In 1980, NASA specialist Vincent Di Pietro, processing images taken by Viking 1 on July 25, 1976, discovered one of them, belonging to the southern part of the Acidalian plain. the image of a rock, which outwardly very much resembled a human face. The amazing surface formation about 300 meters high and more than 1,500 meters in diameter naturally aroused great interest: the photo went around the pages of many Western newspapers and even became an adornment of Walter Hein's book "We are on Mars".the photograph has gone around the pages of many Western newspapers and even became an adornment of Walter Hine's book "We are on Mars".the photograph has gone around the pages of many Western newspapers and even became an adornment of Walter Hine's book "We are on Mars".
Commenting on the image, scientists from NASA expressed the cautious opinion that the "Martian Sphinx" is a fad of weathering coupled with special lighting conditions. On Earth, one can often observe such a play of nature, especially in the mountains. R. Kuzmin, Candidate of Geographical Sciences, considers this phenomenon an accident (see the journal "Earth and Universe". - 1984. - b 4). As in any question, in this case, in addition to skeptics, there were also optimists. The latter argue that the rock is the work of conscious beings who orientated it strictly along the meridian of Mars. One of the supporters of the artificiality of the "bas-relief", candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences V. Avinsky, in his almanac "On Land and Sea" for 1983, reports on even more sensational photography. On it, about 15 miles from the Viking-1 probe, you can see the wreckage of an all-metal ship and a well-distinguishable furrow that it drew in the Martian soil … While optimists and skeptics were debating, American scientists continued a more scrupulous study of the mysterious photograph.
Scientists Di Pietro, Molenaar, and Carlotto of the Boston-based Analyst Science have used the latest computer technology to decode the strange image. As a result, they got quite unexpected results. Firstly, the researchers managed to more clearly "fix" the eye socket, nose, mouth, chin and the so-called page hairdo on the half of the "face" illuminated by the sun by increasing the contrast of the image. Second, by discovering a second image of the same “face” taken 35 days later under new lighting conditions, the scientists were able to construct a three-dimensional image of the structure, which showed that it really looks like a head. The Sphinx does not disappear when viewed from any point and in any direction of the sun's rays. This confirmed that the photograph is not an illusory phenomenon,a part of the basic surface topography. On the right, shaded side of the head, it was possible to find a second eye, which lies about 100 meters below the level of the nose, as well as the second half of the hairstyle. In his article in the renowned American scientific journal Aiplaid Optics, Carlotto argued that "the results obtained to date suggest that all this cannot be of natural origin."
Interesting, if not just amazing, data was also obtained as a result of the use of Di Pietro and Molenaar to process images of computer staining in various colors. This technique, which allows one to distinguish hundreds of color shades, contributed to the detection of eyeballs with pupils in the eye sockets, teeth in a parted mouth, and on a cheek illuminated by the Sun, scientists "saw" a stone tear!.. "If numerous striking details of this stone head formed naturally, then nature must be a highly intelligent creature! " - conclude Di Pietro and Molenaar. However, this is far from all the news. On the same Martian images, no further than 15 kilometers from the "Sphinx", one more group of formations is noticeable, which at first were named a city because of their unusual regularity and geometric outlines.
A more detailed acquaintance with this surface structure in the Sidonia region showed that a group of regular tetrahedral pyramids resembling ancient Egyptian pyramids, but of more significant size, with a side of about 1.5 kilometers, was recorded in the photographs. The wall of one of these pyramids was destroyed and a void is noticeable inside it. If these pyramids are not artificial, then what natural processes could create them? But perhaps most striking is that the Martian "Sphinx" from the Sidonia region is not alone! In a completely different area - Utopia - on the Martian surface there is his "double", which has approximately the same dimensions, the same symmetrical face, the same page hairdo. Both "sphinxes" also have some other details … What is it? A death mask that twice captured the tragedy of Martian civilizationexisted on the planet in the past? A dumb call directed to unknown brothers in mind? A statue of an astronaut of an alien civilization who once visited Mars?
This story could finally be finished if it did not have an amazing continuation, which is told in the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" on August 9, 1989. G. Zadneprovsky, Scientific Secretary of the All-Union Committee on the Problems of Energy Information Exchange in Nature, comments on the drawing by N. Yegorov given in the newspaper, made in an unusual way, which is called "automatic writing". Obeying an unconscious desire, N. Yegorov, after acquaintance with the photograph of the "Martian Sphinx" published in the newspaper, began to draw a ballpoint pen over the photograph. There was no paste in the ball, and the result of the experiment manifested itself on a blank sheet of paper placed under the photograph through carbon paper. There was something that the author himself did not expect: the hand of the "sphinx", the contours of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), their technical details,various symbols … Surprised by the result, Egorov repeated his experiment over and over again, and each time the drawings were similar.
According to Zadneprovsky, the source of information for Yegorov could have been the imagination of a person, or perhaps several people from among many millions, who were staring in surprise at the photograph of the mysterious "Martian Sphinx". But perhaps N. Yegorov's drawing is a reflection of the well thought out, but unrealized plans of those who created the sculpture? If, of course, we accept the hypothesis of its artificial origin … After all that has been said, according to G. Lisov (see the magazine Aurora. - 1990. - # 3), we can be more tolerant of non-trivial assumptions about the cause of the disruption of the Phobos-2 program »: On March 27, 1989, after the next TV session of the Phobos satellite, the radio communication with the automatic interplanetary station died out and was no longer resumed. The author of the publication "The Mystery of the Disappeared Phobos" suggeststhat the accident "Phobos-2" is related to … UFOs. Lisov substantiates his version with the following facts:
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1) in one of the messages published in the newspaper "Izvestia", it was said that three days before the accident, "some large object" got into the field of view of the "Phobos-2" star sensor;
2) 15 years earlier, a bright object fell into the electronic eye of one of the American Mariners, which was near Mars, which knocked down the orientation of the spacecraft and was named a space ghoul;
3) shortly before its accident, "Phobos-2" transmitted unusual pictures, which were images of a dark strip on the surface of Mars, which were perceived as a shadow from a certain spindle-shaped object flying at high altitude.
This circumstance, apparently unknown to him, also resonates with Lisov's arguments. The last measurement session was carried out by the automated station "Mars-3" on March 12, 1972. One of the results of the measurements carried out has remained unclear to this day. A scanning ultraviolet photometer recorded a well-defined light flare, repeating at certain angles between the Sun, the planet's surface and the direction of the line of sight. The glare resembled a sunbeam in open water. But first, there are no such spaces on Mars. Secondly, the ultraviolet range itself testified that this phenomenon was related to the atmosphere, perhaps even to its high layers.
This is the opinion of two scientists: Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences V. Moroz and Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences L. Ksanfomality. The materials obtained did not allow to find out the nature of this phenomenon, and the answer remained with Mars, which also has many other mysterious problems. However, the history of observing various glare and flares on Mars lasts a little, a lot, about a hundred years. On December 11, 1896, the English astronomer Illing noticed a brilliant point on Mars, which soon went out. In August 1924, the Soviet explorer Barabashov discovered a bright white stripe on Mars that did not disappear for several minutes. On a September night in 1956, an outbreak on Mars was noted by the Almaty Observatory. The observed point was "filled" with such a strong bluish-white light that it was not inferior in brightness to the south polar cap of Mars.
But the most powerful outbreak occurred on June 4, 1937. It was observed by the Japanese astronomer Shizuo Maedi. Watching Mars through a telescope, he suddenly saw a sparkling spot appear near the edge of the Martian disk, which did not disappear for five minutes. Its brightness significantly exceeded the radiance of the Martian polar cap. The most interesting thing is that if we take into account the position of the Sun, Mars and the terrestrial observer during this outburst, it turns out that the glare came from a mirror wall placed vertically to the surface of Mars! Well, this, as they say, does not climb into any gate!
Where did the mirror wall come from on Mars? However, oddly enough, the size of the wall may not be too large. Quite simple calculations show that a solar flare from the side wall of the UN Secretariat building in New York can be seen with the naked eye … from the moon! Over the past decades, scientists have repeatedly put forward a variety of assumptions about Martian flares, but there is no plausible explanation for these phenomena yet. However, completing the story about some of the mysteries of the red planet, I would like to agree with the opinion of GLisov, expressed by him in the mentioned publication: “… you hardly need to be ashamed of certain ideas and shy away from them. In the end, the truth, when it is revealed, will put everything on on the way to it, as the ancient sages correctly said, it is better to express one controversial thought and move forward,than repeating indisputable all the time, but standing still.