mars-face.jpg came from http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA01141
NASA's Viking 1 Orbiter spacecraft photographed this region in the northern latitudes of Mars on July 25,
1976 while searching for a landing site for the Viking 2 Lander. The speckled appearance of the image is
due to missing data, called bit errors, caused by problems in transmission of the photographic data from
Mars to Earth. Bit errors comprise part of one of the 'eyes' and 'nostrils' on the eroded rock that resembles
a human face near the center of the image. Shadows in the rock formation give the illusion of a nose and
mouth. Planetary geologists attribute the origin of the formation to purely natural processes. The feature is
1.5 kilometers (one mile) across, with the sun angle at approximately 20 degrees. The picture was taken
from a range of 1,873 kilometers (1,162 miles).

mars-face-better.jpg is PIA01440 from Mars Global Surveyor. Other information can be found at PIA01240 and PIA01241
caption: Shortly after midnight Sunday morning (5 April 1998 12:39 AM PST), the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
     on the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft successfully acquired a high resolution image of the 'Face
     on Mars' feature in the Cydonia region. The image was transmitted to Earth on Sunday, and retrieved from
     the mission computer data base Monday morning (6 April 1998). The image was processed at the Malin
     Space Science Systems (MSSS) facility 9:15 AM and the raw image immediately transferred to the Jet
     Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for release to the Internet. The images shown here were subsequently
     processed at MSSS. 

     The picture was acquired 375 seconds after the spacecraft's 220th close approach to Mars. At that time,
     the 'Face', located at approximately 40.8¡ N, 9.6¡ W, was 275 miles (444 km) from the spacecraft. The
     'morning' sun was 25¡ above the horizon. The picture has a resolution of 14.1 feet (4.3 meters) per pixel,
     making it ten times higher resolution than the best previous image of the feature, which was taken by the
     Viking Mission in the mid-1970's. The full image covers an area 2.7 miles (4.4 km) wide and 25.7 miles
     (41.5 km) long. 

     Processing

     Image processing has been applied to the images in order to improve the visibility of features. This
     processing included the following steps:

        1.The image was processed to remove the sensitivity differences between adjacent picture elements
          (calibrated). This removes the vertical streaking.

        2.The contrast and brightness of the image was adjusted, and 'filters' were applied to enhance detail at
          several scales.

        3.The image was then geometrically warped to meet the computed position information for a
          mercator-type map. This corrected for the left-right flip, and the non-vertical viewing angle (about
          45¡ from vertical), but also introduced some vertical "elongation" of the image for the same reason
          Greenland looks larger than Africa on a mercator map of the Earth.

        4.A section of the image, containing the 'Face' and a couple of nearly impact craters and hills, was 'cut'
          out of the full image and reproduced separately.

     See PIA01441-1442 for additional processing steps. Also see PIA01236 for the raw image.

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happy-face-mars.jpg came from http://photojournal-a.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA02325
Smile! Spring has sprung in the martian southern hemisphere. With it comes the annual retreat of the winter
polar frost cap. This view of "Happy Face Crater"---officially named "Galle Crater"---shows patches of
white water ice frost in and around the crater's south-facing slopes. Slopes that face south will retain frost
longer than north-facing slopes because they do not receive as much sunlight in early spring. This picture is
a composite of images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) red and blue
wide angle cameras. The wide angle cameras were designed to monitor the changing weather, frost, and
wind patterns on Mars. Galle Crater is located on the east rim of the Argyre Basin and is about 215
kilometers (134 miles) across. In this picture, illumination is from the upper left and north is up. 

valentine-mars.jpg came from http://photojournal-a.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA02361
Happy St. Valentine's Day from the Red Planet! The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera
(MOC) captured this unique view of a bright, heart-shaped mesa in the south polar region on November
26, 1999. This feature is located in the Promethei Rupes region near 79.6¡S, 298.3¡W. Sunlight illuminates
the scene from the lower left. The heart is about 255 meters (279 yards) across. The presence of this mesa
indicates that the darker, rough terrain that surrounds it was once covered by a layer of the bright material.