Examining the Cydonia Region of Mars Mars Global Surveyor images of the 'Face' on Mars at the Cydonia region. An HTML version may be viewed here . The Viking spacecraft provided our first close up look at Mars in the 1970s. While the likeness was striking, there was insufficient data to draw any conclusions.
People frequently see familiar shapes in otherwise random images, such as the 'man in the moon'.
New images from different angles and at higher resolution were needed before any sound determination about the origin of the object could be made. Unfortunately, perhaps due to the astounding implications artificiality brings, many people, including scientists, rushed to judgment on this issue, polarizing into two extreme camps. While the original image did not support conclusions, it did serve as a basis for predictions. Half of the original image was in shadow and the resolution of the image was still fairly low. If the image was artificial, future images should show symmetry in the shadowed area or secondary facial features only visible at higher resolutions.