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<br />
	<span><keyword id="173214" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="the-US">The US</keyword> space agency <keyword id="6360409" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="NASA">NASA</keyword> has solve the mystery behind a video showing an alien walking on the surface of Earth's natural <keyword id="6358065" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Satellite">satellite</keyword> that is the <keyword id="42440" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Moon">Moon</keyword>. According to the scientists it is simply “dust, an eyelash or scratch on the negative” of the film that took the image. The video showing the alien on the moon was posted by a <keyword id="10879" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="YouTube">YouTube</keyword> user. It was viewed more than two million times in less than a month.</span>
<br /><br />

	As per Nasa scientists, the image was taken by either the Apollo 15 or 17 manned missions to the moon in 1971 and 1972, respectively. 
<br /><br />

	“My best guess, is that something (dust, an eyelash, scratch on the negative) was on the film,” said a scientist.
<br /><br />

	“Remember, this was in the pre-digital days when all sorts of nasty things could happen to film,” he added.
<br /><br /> If we believe several media reports, the video went viral because of a psychological phenomenon called <keyword id="2476765" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Pareidolia">Pareidolia</keyword>, which is supposed to be the brain’s response to spot faces and other significant objects in random stimulus. <br /><br /> Few days ago, the government of <keyword id="27157" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Chile">Chile</keyword> had released an analysis of two high quality photos that show what appear be genuine unidentified flying objects hovering over Collahuasi copper mine in the South American country.

NASA Claims Video Showing Alien On Moon Is Just Dust

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A NASA satellite has beamed back a picture of an interesting Martian rock formation.</li><li>The picture looks like a giant bear. </li></ul><p>NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped a picture of a rock formation that looks remarkably like a bear. </p><p>"A bear on Mars?" a release from <a href="https://www.uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_076769_1380" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the team analyzing the picture asked</a>. </p><p>Hardly, but the resemblance is uncanny in this picture taken on December 12. </p><p>The pattern is made by stress fracture running in a circle around a collapsed structure. From the right angle, it looks like a bear's mouth. </p><p>The scientists suggest this may have once been an impact crater filled by deposits, which would explain the circular crack.</p><p>The raised structure in the middle could have been a volcano or a mud vent, per the release. </p><p>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-orbiter-best-images-15th-anniversary-2020-8">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a satellite launched in 2005,</a> has provided groundbreaking science on its mission.</p><p>But it and other probes have also been a source of light entertainment in the form of funny space photos.</p><p>Human brains are known to have a tendency to look for recognizable shapes in what they see, a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/a-science-and-math-based-artist-used-the-concept-of-pareidolla-to-create-an-image-of-a-human-face-using-inanimate-objects-2015-12">phenomenon called pareidolia</a></p><p>In 2019, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-orbital-spotted-the-star-trek-starfleet-logo-on-mars-2019-6"> spotted the "Star Trek" logo</a> on the Red Planet, for instance. </p><p>Others have sworn that a zoomed-in picture from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crab-shaped-object-photographed-on-mars-2015-8">NASA's Mars rover showed alien crabs</a> ready to pounce on your face, which was of course discredited by NASA. </p><p>Some have said they've spotted the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/religion-and-paranomal-activity-2012-11">face of Mahatma Gandhi</a> on the Google Mars map. </p><p>The most <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crab-shaped-object-photographed-on-mars-2015-8">iconic example of pareidolia is the "Face on Mars,"</a> a picture snapped in 1976 by NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft. </p><div type="image" title="NASA's viking 1 picture shows a face-like rock formation on the surface of Mars" height="1500" width="2000" msid="97349171" hostid="261" sizebytes="101598"></div><p>The shape, which looks like a human face, attracted many a conspiracy theory.</p><p>Unfortunately, when NASA got closer, it turned out the enigmatic face was no more than a ridge. </p><div type="image" title="A 2001 3d rendering of the &quot;face on Mars&quot; shows it's nothign more than a rock formation." height="885" width="1770" msid="97349174" hostid="261" sizebytes="72324"></div>

NASA spotted a rock formation on Mars that looks just like a giant bear face

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/sdo-jack-o-lantern-sun">NASA/SDO</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>From the man in the moon to Greek gods among the stars, humans have long been discovering familiar forms in the heavens.</p><p>There's a word for this phenomenon of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-do-we-see-the-man-in-the-moon-2015-4">seeing patterns that don't exist: pareidolia</a>. And it's all psychological.</p><p>While this mind-trick may have <a href="http://www.livescience.com/45690-seeing-faces-pareidolia.html">served some evolutionary purpose</a>, like helping us recognize mountian lions in the bush, it also leads to some pretty crazy interpretations.</p><p>Here, we offer some of the best examples of pareidolia with help from humanity's most powerful telescopes.</p>

Amazing space photos of alien objects that look eerily familiar

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>It's not just the religious who claim to see faces in inert objects. From shadowy likenesses of Jesus and the Virgin Mary in potato chips and tree stumps to the Man in the Moon, people have been spotting human portraits in faceless objects for hundreds of years.</p>
<p>Our reactions are perfectly normal, according to recent <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945214000288">research</a> from Chinese and Canadian scientists, published earlier this year in the journal Cortex. On September 18, these researchers won the Ig Nobel prize in neuroscience for their study, which uncovered the brain processes at play when someone - religious or not - sees a face where none exist.</p>
<p>The phenomenon of spotting human likenesses in everything from tortillas to the sky is so normal it has a name: pareidolia, Greek for "faulty image." To test how many of us experience pareidolia, researchers showed a group of volunteers a series of black and white image scrambles.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Although all of the images were purely random assortments of dots and blobs, the researchers told the volunteers that half of them contained either faces or letters. Mysteriously, the volunteers said they spotted either faces or letters in the random images nearly a third of the time.</p>
<p>While they had the volunteers look at the images, the scientists measured their brain activity with an MRI. They found that the same parts of the brain that light up when we see real faces lit up in participants who saw non-existent faces - basically our brains are just tuned to recognize faces, even if it's in a piece of burnt bread. They aren't imagining something, but putting together the same pattern recognition that we use when we spot someone's face out of a crowd.</p>
<p>Scientist Carl Sagan theorized that the reason we see faces where none exist stems from an evolutionary need to quickly discern facial expressions. Those of our ancestors who could easily decipher friend from foe had a better chance of surviving, and passed on their genes.</p>
<p>Recent research has suggests that this innate inclination to search out faces has even spurred our <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-are-human-faces-so-complex-and-unique-2014-9">faces to become more unique</a> than those of other species - a potential explanation for why we all look slightly different.</p>

Researchers Studying Why People Keep Seeing Jesus In Toast Just Won An Award 

<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>BI Answers: Why do we see the man in the moon and faces in other inanimate objects?</h2><p>When you look up at the moon on a clear night, what do you see?</p><p>Most people see the face of a person - a man, as the story goes.</p><p>But when we take a closer look, the blobs of grey formed by the shadows on the moon's surface actually look pretty random. To me, they look nothing like a person.</p><p>So why are so many people convinced that there's a face looking down at us from above?</p><p>As it turns out, the Man in the Moon is just one example of a strange phenomenon called pareidolia, our creepy tendency to see faces where none exist. Pareidolia is Greek for "faulty image."</p><p>Take a look at this sink, for example, posted on <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Pareidolia/">a Reddit thread dedicated to everyday instances of pareidolia.</a> It's hard not to see a pair of eyes looking back at you:</p><div><div><a href="http://imgur.com/Yr6lsYR"></div><p></p></div></div><p class="embed-spacer">The best part isn't the crazy likenesses, though - it's the <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> that makes it all possible.</p><h2>Why our brains register faces in everyday objects</h2><p>For a recent <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945214000288">study</a>, scientists showed a group of volunteers look at a series of completely random scrambles of black and white dots and blobs while the scientists looked at their brains under an MRI. Before they saw any of the images, the researchers told them that half of the images contained either faces or letters.</p><p>When the volunteers were asked to identify what they saw, they said they saw either faces or letters in the images nearly a third of the time.</p><p>From the MRI scans, the researchers could tell that the same parts of the brain that light up when we see real faces also lit up in participants who saw the made-up, non-existent faces.</p><p>In other words, our brains may simply be tuned to recognize human likenesses, whether they're actually human or not.</p><h2>From silly-looking sandwiches to Jesus in tortillas</h2><p>People have been spotting faces in inanimate objects across the globe for thousands of years.</p><p>Many of the most famous instances involve Jesus or another religious figure. In 1898, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/03/living/finding-jesus-q-a-shroud-turin/">a man photographing a cloth on display in the Italian Turin Cathedral reported seeing the face of Jesus on the cross in the photo's negative</a>. Just last year, a <a href="http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/religion/article/Man-claims-burn-mark-on-tortilla-resembles-Jesus-5950739.php">man in Texas claimed he'd spotted Jesus on a tortilla</a>. He's now trying to sell it.</p><div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><h2>Our tendency to see faces may have evolutionary roots</h2><p>Scientist Carl Sagan theorized that we see faces where none exist because our ancestors needed to be able to quickly identify people they knew and discern facial expressions that would warn us of a potential threat.</p><p>Those of us who could easily tell a friend from a foe were more likely to survive and pass on their genes to future generations.</p><p>Since natural selection has favored faces that are unique and easily recognizable, it would make sense that over thousands of years our faces would become even more one-of-a-kind. Several recent studies have suggested that as opposed to dogs or cats, that didn't rely on face recognition as heavily for their survival, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-are-human-faces-so-complex-and-unique-2014-9">humans have some of the most distinctive faces in the animal kingdom</a>.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-are-human-faces-so-complex-and-unique-2014-9"><br /></a></p><p>So our tendency to see faces, while a bit strange, may be beneficial to us after all.</p><p><em>This post is part of a continuing series that answers all of your questions related to science. Have your own question? Email <a href="mailto:science@businessinsider.com">science@businessinsider.com</a> with the subject line "Q&amp;A"; tweet your question to <a href="https://twitter.com/BI_Science">@BI_Science</a>; or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BusinessInsiderScience">post to our Facebook page</a>.</em></p>

The scientific reason why so many people think they see a man in the moon

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:350px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">KPCB</p><p class="caption">Ellen Pao, Investment Partner at KPCB</p></div><keyword id="334157" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Reddit">Reddit</keyword> just announced that it's hired Ellen Pao. Formerly, Pao worked at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kleiner-perkins-ellen-pao-lawsuit-sex-scandal-silicon-valley-2012-6?op=1">She sued Kleiner last year for sexual harassment.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.reddit.com/">Here is Reddit's blog post announcing the news:</a></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>A long-time lurker, Ellen comes to us by way of a long, adventurous career spanning venture capital, business development, law, and electrical engineering.  She's been a formal and informal advisor to reddit for more than a year, and recently decided to finally join us full-time.  She'll be working on helping us build strategic partnerships that benefit the community.  Here's Ellen in her own words:</span><br /><span><br /></span><span></span><span>"</span><span>I grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey, raised by enginerds on Star Wars, computers and books. I live in San Francisco, via New York City, Boston and Hong Kong. I've worked with dozens of tech companies, traveling to eleven countries on five continents, to help build a variety of consumer and business platform companies.</span><span> </span><span><em>My favorite subreddits are </em><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/iama">/r/IAmA</a><em> and </em><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/pareidolia">/r/pareidolia</a><em> (I like people even when they're not real)</em></span><em><span>. Being part of a community of people who care is inspiring and energizing. reddit has so much to offer so many people, and </span><span>I'm excited to find partners to help make reddit even more awesome.</span><span>"</span></em><br /><span><em><span><br /></span></em></span><span>The past few months (and Monday) have been a time of unprecedented growth for reddit, and we'd like to thank everyone who's reading this for your support, whether that happens to be by contributing interesting new posts, buying ads or reddit gold, sharing reddit with your friends, or moderating one of the thousands and thousands of unique subreddits.  Verily, through all our efforts, reddit shall continue on its course to its destiny uninterrupted.</span></p>

You Searched For "Pareidolia" and got 6 results

NASA Claims Video Showing Alien On Moon Is Just Dust

BI India Bureau

NASA spotted a rock formation on Mars that looks just like a giant bear face

Marianne Guenot

Amazing space photos of alien objects that look eerily familiar

Tanya Lewis

Researchers Studying Why People Keep Seeing Jesus In Toast Just Won An Award

Erin Brodwin

The scientific reason why so many people think they see a man in the moon

Erin Brodwin

Reddit Hires Ellen Pao, Who Sued Kleiner Perkins For Sexual Harassment

Nicholas Carlson

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