NASA has revealed an image of a spooky face on Jupiter and explained how seeing it involves a mental phenomenon.
The space agency recently posted the picture to its Instagram account and it’s received hundreds of thousands of likes.
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Nasa joked that the face looks a lot like a Picasso painting.
It wrote: “OK. I like it. Picasso! On Sept. 7, 2023, during its 54th close flyby of Jupiter, the @NASASolarSystem #JunoMission captured this view of an area in the giant planet’s far northern regions.”
Jupiter’s clouds swirling in the image make some viewers think they can see two eyes, a nose, and a mouth.
Half of the picture is dark because it features the planet’s night side.
It means you’re viewing Jupiter in both night and day with a swirling storm on one side.
The image was captured 4,800 miles above Jupiter’s clouds by the Juno spacecraft.
Nasa also used its caption to explain a mental phenomenon called pareidolia.
You experience pareidolia when you see a face in intimate objects.
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The space agency wrote: “As often occurs in views from Juno, Jupiter’s clouds in this picture lend themselves to pareidolia, the effect that causes observers to perceive faces or other patterns in largely random patterns.”
Pareidolia is common and often experienced in everyday life.
According to the International Arts + Mind Lab, pareidolia was once considered a symptom of people going through psychosis.
It’s now considered a part of a normal human experience.
Nasa posted the picture on October 25 to celebrate the 142nd birthday of Picasso.
