Mars rocks and Ancient Constructions?

[HAL 9000]

Listening to Richard Hoagland on late night radio and
visiting his website : www.enterprisemission.com I see
a lot of pictures of the planet Mars and lately a few
shots taken of the Mars landscape showing a lot of rocks
and Mars soil...only he claims these "Rocks" are possibly
ancient remains of fish or animals. It's too early to
tell for sure but Hoagland has a book out where he claims
that pictures taken of Mars show the remains of ancient
cities and constructions built by unknown beings. He is
convinced that a "Face" is a sculptured construction and
not just a hill worn by dust storms and tricks of light.
Near to the "Face" are pyramid shaped buildings or are
they just ancient wind worn hills?

What do you think? Is he just trying to get people to
buy and read his book or is he on to something? And what
about his belief that ancient constructions exist on our
Moon? He claims he can see ancient towers and glass domes
on the moon. Some say that NASA air brushes pictures of
the Moon and from other places to keep UFOs and other odd
things from the public. What do you think?

 

[LURCH]

Originally posted by HAL 9000

What do you think? Is he just trying to get people to
buy and read his book or is he on to something?

I don't think either of those, or not exactly. The first, "is he just trying to get people to buy and read his book", may be close to accurate. However, I get the definite sense that he actually believes (at least to some degree) the claims he is making. The other possibility; "is he on to something?", I find highly unlikely. I have seen rocks shaped by wind and whether right here on Earth that resemble various things far more closely than the so-called "face on Mars" resembles a face.

I suspect that he half-believes these claims, but it is a belief born more out of convenience than conviction. I think he "chooses to believe" these ideas so that he can broadcast them publicly and get attention.

 

[Nereid]

I think this post belongs in Skepticism and Debunking

Most guests and members of PF can make up their own minds about the degree to which various formations, rocks, etc on Mars and the Moon resemble fish, faces, Disneyland, or Richard Hoagland's big toe ... go to the various websites with the piccies and see for yourselves (you can even get the raw data files and do your own processing with Photoshop or whatever).

"Some say that NASA air brushes pictures of the Moon and from other places to keep UFOs and other odd things from the public" How does one deal with this kind of thing? [?]

 

[Phobos]

Welcome HAL 9000.

Originally posted by Nereid
I think this post belongs in Skepticism and Debunking

Most definitely. I'll beam it there now. I'll try to return soon & discuss it. For now, let me simply say Hoagland =

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A previous discussion

Did NASA Accidentally “Nuke” Jupiter?
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8563

 

[motai]

Originally posted by HAL 9000
...landscape showing a lot of rocks
and Mars soil...only he claims these "Rocks" are possibly
ancient remains of fish or animals.

I find this hard to believe, the distance seems too great to make any sort of reasonable assumption (if telescopes are used). Its kind of like trying to find a penny from ten miles away using nothing but binoculars.

 

[LURCH]

Originally posted by motai
I find this hard to believe, the distance seems too great to make any sort of reasonable assumption (if telescopes are used). Its kind of like trying to find a penny from ten miles away using nothing but binoculars.

I took a peak at the images in question, and they are those pics of the Mars rocks found in the Arctic. You might remember the fuss a few years ago when these rocks were examined under an electron microscope and shapes that resemble microorganisms were discovered.

After a good long look and a bit of head-scratching, NASA held a press coference and showed the pics to the public saying, "these look similar to fossilised microorganisms, but we're still looking for other explanations". It is perhaps this press conference to which Hoagy referrs when he says that the photos were "leaked" (that's one heck of a leak; if NASA doesn't get that plugged soon, they'll explosively decompress!).

 

[Phobos]

Plait (the Bad Astronomer) finally takes on Hoagland! :)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/17/alien.debunk/index.html