Is The “Man In The Moon” A Real Phenomenon?

We love seeing things in other things: rocks, houses, plugs, all become faces . In the sky, the constellations linked myths and legends with distant and often unrelated stars. A particular example of celestial pareidolia – the perception of a pattern in a random arrangement of stuff – is what in Western countries is referred to as the Man in the Moon. However, not everyone sees the same thing. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

In the cover image of this article, the Moon is low on the horizon and, aided by haze and thin clouds, we can see details that remind us of a face. There are eyes, the bright bridge of a nose ending in darker nostrils, and a mouth slightly off center. This “human face” on the Moon was crystalliz