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CNN Live At Daybreak
Folks Looking for Face Time on Mars
Aired August 29, 2003 - 05:57 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: So, Mars is closer to Earth than it's been in 60,000 years, but it's still not close enough to see what some people swear exists, sort of a cross between crop circles and the man in the moon.
CNN's Jeanne Moos has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Now that Mars is ready for its close-ups, some folks are looking for face time.
MICHAEL LUCKMAN, DIRECTOR, NEW YORK CENTER FOR UFO RESEARCH: This is the newest face on Mars.
MOOS: But first, let us introduce some of the older ones. The most famous face was first noticed on NASA photos more than 20 years ago. This was the next picture touted by believers.
LUCKMAN: I call it the Martian princess.
MOOS: And now those convinced that ancient civilizations created these faces are focusing on one nicknamed Easter Island Man, after the Stoneheads found on Easter Island in Chile. If you ask us, it looks a little like a Picasso in his cubist period.
Mainstream scientists tend to be...
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, DIRECTOR, HAYDEN PLANETARIUM: Unimpressed and unswayed. We've all laid out on a sandy beach and looked up at cumulus clouds and taken turns describing what we see -- Abe Lincoln, George Washington.
MOOS: Actually, we thought this one looks a little lie Sponge Bob Square Pants. But believers like former U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomer Tom Van Flandern don't care if people call them names.
TOM VAN FLANDERN: Phrases like face loonies.
MOOS: Most debate has centered on the original face. It even starred in the movie "Mission To Mars."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "MISSION TO MARS")
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you trying to tell us? Are you trying to tell us that that's a face?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS: But when NASA took better photos in the late '90s, there seemed to be no saving this face. Undaunted, the believers took a negative of the image, improved the lighting and the angle.
LUCKMAN: That's a pretty good idea of what the object looks like with normal lighting from an overhead view.
MOOS: The closet thing on Earth, they say, Mount Rushmore. They claim the new photos show more details.
LUCKMAN: Two nostrils at the end of the nose.
MOOS: And did we mention the so-called tubes running all over Mars?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They go in and out of the ground.
MOOS: But NASA scientists think the tubes are really sand or frost, features of an exotic landscape that defies what we Earthlings know. By the way, this just in...
(on camera): Did you know they discontinued the Mars bar?
VAN FLANDERN: No.
MOOS (voice-over): It's true. Discontinued only in the U.S. Face proponents held their press conference at a theme restaurant called Mars 2112, where you take a ride to the dining room. The costumed empress of Mars looked suspiciously like one of the photos.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, but that's only got the two eyes and I obviously have that third up there. Oh goodness.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 29, 2003 - 05:57 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: So, Mars is closer to Earth than it's been in 60,000 years, but it's still not close enough to see what some people swear exists, sort of a cross between crop circles and the man in the moon.
CNN's Jeanne Moos has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Now that Mars is ready for its close-ups, some folks are looking for face time.
MICHAEL LUCKMAN, DIRECTOR, NEW YORK CENTER FOR UFO RESEARCH: This is the newest face on Mars.
MOOS: But first, let us introduce some of the older ones. The most famous face was first noticed on NASA photos more than 20 years ago. This was the next picture touted by believers.
LUCKMAN: I call it the Martian princess.
MOOS: And now those convinced that ancient civilizations created these faces are focusing on one nicknamed Easter Island Man, after the Stoneheads found on Easter Island in Chile. If you ask us, it looks a little like a Picasso in his cubist period.
Mainstream scientists tend to be...
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, DIRECTOR, HAYDEN PLANETARIUM: Unimpressed and unswayed. We've all laid out on a sandy beach and looked up at cumulus clouds and taken turns describing what we see -- Abe Lincoln, George Washington.
MOOS: Actually, we thought this one looks a little lie Sponge Bob Square Pants. But believers like former U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomer Tom Van Flandern don't care if people call them names.
TOM VAN FLANDERN: Phrases like face loonies.
MOOS: Most debate has centered on the original face. It even starred in the movie "Mission To Mars."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "MISSION TO MARS")
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you trying to tell us? Are you trying to tell us that that's a face?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS: But when NASA took better photos in the late '90s, there seemed to be no saving this face. Undaunted, the believers took a negative of the image, improved the lighting and the angle.
LUCKMAN: That's a pretty good idea of what the object looks like with normal lighting from an overhead view.
MOOS: The closet thing on Earth, they say, Mount Rushmore. They claim the new photos show more details.
LUCKMAN: Two nostrils at the end of the nose.
MOOS: And did we mention the so-called tubes running all over Mars?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They go in and out of the ground.
MOOS: But NASA scientists think the tubes are really sand or frost, features of an exotic landscape that defies what we Earthlings know. By the way, this just in...
(on camera): Did you know they discontinued the Mars bar?
VAN FLANDERN: No.
MOOS (voice-over): It's true. Discontinued only in the U.S. Face proponents held their press conference at a theme restaurant called Mars 2112, where you take a ride to the dining room. The costumed empress of Mars looked suspiciously like one of the photos.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, but that's only got the two eyes and I obviously have that third up there. Oh goodness.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
