Of course, the Sun has neither eyes nor mouth. If you can clearly see a face appear on its surface, it’s due to our brain. Indeed, it interprets the images that our eyes receive… and finds meaning in them, even when these images are vague or indeterminate. And as the brain is specifically programmed to easily spot faces, it can begin to detect it in objects that closely resemble it… or from afar!
This kind of optical illusion, which makes you see a smiley face instead of the Sun in the photo, is called “pareidolia”. It is also she who can give you the impression of seeing monster heads on the tapestry of your room, for example!
Thanks to Laurent Perrinet, researcher
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute=””>CNRS[{“attribute=””>CNRS in computational neuroscience, and to Olivier Sanguy, editor-in-chief of space news at the Cité de l’espace.
