A Martian Happy Face

Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Every once in a while, some­thing grabs sci­en­tists’ atten­tion and makes them smile. The “Happy Face Crater” on Mars is one of them. This crater, also called Galle Crater after Ger­man astronomer J.G. Galle, is about 134 miles (215 kilo­me­ters) across and sits at the edge of the Argyre Plani­tia. This smi­ley face image was taken by a cam­era aboard the Euro­pean Space Agency’s Mars Express.

The crater was first pointed out dur­ing NASA’s Viking Orbiter 1 mis­sion in 1976. The large impact crater is the result of a large comet or aster­oid that slammed into Mars mil­lions of years ago. Mars’ sur­face looks much like the Moons with impact craters and basins, all left over from the early days of the solar sys­tem. Because the Moon has no atmos­phere, wind and rain haven’t soft­ened those fea­tures like on Earth. Mars has a lit­tle atmos­phere and the Happy Face Crater shows a sur­face soft­ened by wind, dust dev­ils and maybe some water.

There are many fea­tures on Mars that resem­ble faces or heads such as the “Face of Cydo­nia.” Those fea­tures are tricks of light and shadow. In the case of the Happy Face Crater, peaks, craters and ridges form the eyes, nose and mouth of the crater and they are all natural.

Explore Google Mars and find more faces and heads.