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The Planetary Society Blog

By Emily Lakdawalla

Gorilla seen in Nasa Snap from Mars? Umm....no.

Mar. 3, 2010 | 15:00 PST | 23:00 UTC

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Yes, I'm totally not kidding, that is the headline in the Sun: "'Gorilla' seen in Nasa Snap from Mars." The article goes on to quote a Mr. Nigel Cooper, "who has studied thousands of photos taken by Nasa rovers and posted online" as saying that "It's definitely a creature of some sort."

Riiiiight. You and I both know this is just silly. But there are lots of people out there who do not, so I am grateful for the efforts of Mr. Doug Ellison to combat the silliness of his homeland's newspaper. Here, for your consideration, is proof that it's really not a gorilla, it's just a rock! And a well documented one at that.

Click to enlarge >

Not a gorilla
Contrary to the report of the quality publication Sun, that rock is not a gorilla. Credit: NASA / JPL / Cornell / Doug Ellison

Not enough pictures for you? Here's more...

Click to enlarge >

All the "gorilla" pics
The "gorilla" turns out to be a very well-documented rock from early in Spirit's mission to Gusev Crater, Mars. (Note: the "click to enlarge" version is half the original resolution; go to unmannedspaceflight.com for the full-resolution version.) Credit: NASA / JPL / Cornell / Doug Ellison

I don't post this just to joke -- one question I get asked by scientists who are concerned making image data more accessible to the public is, don't we risk more of these stupid hoaxers and conspiracy theorists finding all kinds of bizarre things (gorillas! Bigfoot! Jimmy Hoffa!) in the pictures? The answer is, probably, yes -- but you are also making the images more accessible to people who are really really happy to use their time to find every last picture of this object and give all the sane people on the Internet the information they need to be convinced that, no, it's really a rock.

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Comments

zomg

OMG PROOF OF LIFE ON MARS!!!11one

#1 - bef milne - 03/03/2010 - 16:27

Invasion!

The invasion begins:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Space-Gorillas/334398718439

#2 - Carl - 03/03/2010 - 18:43

Shall We Call it Magilla?

There is always the possibility that these hoaxes are an attempt to make the images *less* freely available to the public.

#3 - Tony Fisk - 03/03/2010 - 19:40

Too bad it's not an actual gorilla, it could help Spirit getting out of the sand trap...
Now seriously, we shouldn't waste our time with news like this.

#4 - Claudiu - 03/03/2010 - 21:30

The rock has a different name

That rock was called "Skull" by the science team when Spirit was there. We hit it pretty hard on sol 78 with a 13-filter pancam image and a 3x9x20 mini-TES raster.

#5 - Mark Adler - 03/03/2010 - 23:14

is it real ?
i think iT's fake as we can see obviously
i'm waiting scientific explanation from nasa

#6 - Carrington Jones - 03/04/2010 - 05:00

Articles like this, Emily, are published for amusement only. Persons who take it seriously number approximately the same as the audience of MSNBC. There will aways be the common-sense-challenged...

#7 - Mike Hanson - 03/04/2010 - 05:06

It can't be true

Thats not Mars it's the Nevada Desert

#8 - handsyhands - 03/04/2010 - 06:10

beware

no worries, we're doing our best to find it. btw, that gorilla belongs to Mars Central Zoo.

#9 - Frank Mars - 03/04/2010 - 07:17

grape ape

hey if makes the masses think of Mars then whatever it takes.....LOL

#10 - hollie - 03/04/2010 - 13:17

How do we conquer a giant gorilla made of stone? Only paper beats stone in rock paper scissors.

#11 - Mark - 03/05/2010 - 17:00

Prof

This tells us a lot about perception. Is there any data available on the percentage of readers that are taken in by this? I note that in the case of the reflection in Dick Cheney's sunglasses, 21% accepted the suggestion that it was of a naked woman (it was his hand on a fishing rod).

#12 - Philip Howse - 03/06/2010 - 02:12

Oh come on; you just know that, just out of the camera's view in every picture, there's a Martian with all three thumbs in his ears, sticking his tongues out at the camera and laughing out of all three sides of his face at the silly earthlings...

:P

#13 - CJ - 03/07/2010 - 13:26

The lamest hoax yet

OMG, there's no evidence for intelligent life on Earth after all.

#14 - Stephen - 04/03/2010 - 13:26

its not true, i think its any thing else.

#15 - shakir khan - 01/05/2011 - 06:28


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