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Galle (Martian crater)

Crater on Mars, also known as the "happy face crater"

Field	Value
titlecolor	#FA8072
title	Galle
image	Happy-face1.jpg
caption	Photographed by the Mars Global Surveyor, 1999-03-10
coordinate_title	Coordinates
globe	Mars
coordinates
diameter	230.0 km
eponym	Johann Gottfried Galle

Note

the crater on Mars

Galle is a crater on Mars. It is located on the eastern rim of the huge impact basin Argyre Planitia in Argyre quadrangle. It is named after the German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle. Galle is often known as the "happy face crater" because pareidolia causes a curved mountain range in the southern part of the crater and two smaller mountain clusters further north to appear to be a smiley face. The formation was first photographed by Viking Orbiter 1 in 1976.

A second "happy face crater", smaller than Galle and located at 45.1°S, 55.0°W in Nereidum Montes, was discovered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on January 28, 2008.

Appearance in ''Watchmen''

As the smiley is a key motif in the comic book Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the crater was used as a story location after the coincidence was noted by Gibbons. According to Gibbons, the similarity "was almost too good to be true. I worried that if we put it in, people would never believe it." The crater also appears in the same scene during the film adaptation.

Gallery

Image:Galle crater 352S24 352S26.jpg|Viking Orbiter 1 mosaic Image:Galle crater 576A64 576A66.jpg|Another Viking 1 mosaic Image:Wikigalleeast.jpg|East side of Galle crater, as seen by CTX camera (on MRO). Image:Wikigulledunesgullies.jpg|Gullies on mounds and dunes in Galle crater, as seen by CTX camera. Note this is an enlargement of previous photo. Image:Wikigallelayers.jpg|Layered deposit in Galle crater, as seen by CTX camera. Note: this is an enlargement of a previous image. Image:Wikigalleflowsgullies.jpg|Old glacial flows and gullies on eastern side of Galle crater, as seen by CTX camera. Note: this is an enlargement of the previous photo. Image:Wikigalledevils.jpg|Dunes and dust devil tracks in Galle crater, as seen by CTX camera. Wikigalleeye.jpg|Part of Galle crater, as seen by CTX camera. The right "eye" and "mouth" are labeled. One of two dune fields are labeled as well. ESP 046684 1280molawide.jpg|Wide view of area around Galle crater. Colors show elevations. ESP 046684 1280molaclosergalle.jpg|Region around Galle crater. Colors show elevations. ESP 046684 1280molaclosegalle.jpg|Galle crater. Colors show elevations. Arrow indicates a layered mound that is enlarged in other images to follow. ESP 046684 1280gallecontext.jpg|Wide CTX view of part of layered mound. Parts of this mound are enlarged in HiRISE images that follow. ESP 046684 1280layerspretty.jpg|HiRISE image from area in previous image. Picture taken under HiWish program. ESP 046684 1280layersprettybottom.jpg|Layers in mound in Galle crater, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program ESP 046684 1280layersprettymiddle.jpg|Layers in mound in Galle crater, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program ESP 046684 1280layersprettytop.jpg|Layers in mound in Galle crater, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program 46684 1280breaking.jpg|Layers breaking up into boulders in Galle crater, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program 46684 1280gullies.jpg|Layers and gullies in Galle crater, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program 46684 1280layers.jpg|Close view of layers in mound in Galle crater, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program 46684 1280mesa.jpg|Layered mesa in mound in Galle crater, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program 46684 1280polygons.jpg|Layers and polygons in mound in Galle crater, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program 46684 1280wall.jpg|Close view of layers in mound in Galle crater, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program

References

{{gpn. 2080. Galle
(June 9, 2017). "Scientist of the Day - Johann Galle, German Astronomer Neptune Discovery".
[http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001314/ Have a happy day on Mars] {{Webarchive. link. (2010-04-21 , [[The Planetary Society]] Blog, Feb. 1, 2008)
Web Behrens. (February 27, 2009). "'Watchmen': Your guide to watching the big screen adaptation of the comic book". [[Chicago Tribune]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

impact-craters-on-mars argyre-quadrangle watchmen pareidolia

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