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Aliens vs. Knowledge

Twenty-five years before 2001, NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft spotted a landform in the shape of a face on Mars's surface. This, after being released to the media, caused an uprising of speculations. Did aliens make this? Were there other beings on other planets? Are we not alone?

A famous scientist once said that we researched for other life on other planets because humans didn't want to be alone in this vast galaxy. He also said that it could cause either fear or excitement. The media wanted to grab the attention of the common people, and to do that they needed something extraordinary. The media spins the truth to benefit their needs. You can't believe everything they say because all they can do is gain by your speculation.

NASA hardly thought this was the work of aliens. They didn't want the people to think they were lying, they wanted to seek the truth. Even if they were hiding something, they could only ever lose everything for covering it up. More attention on the dying out NASA program would gain the support and money to fund them. So, on April 5, 1998, they sent another spacecraft to take pictures of the landform.

Not everyone thought the image that came up, the one of a landform, sufficed. They argued that it was probably too hazy and that the image wasn't a reliable resource. They said that the haze was blocking the alien markings.

Again, NASA sent another spacecraft in 2001 to take better pictures in different angles. The picture showed a landform much like a butte or mesa here on Earth. Some people stated that it was a conspiracy.

Mars has unique quirks like every planet. Here on earth we have natural landforms such as a mesa, and mountains, and rivers. Mars isn't much different.

Scientists have special catogories for classifying a planet, and Pluto did not meet those requirements. So, every planet has to have at least one thing in common with another. Just beacause Mars is a different planet, doesn't mean that it can't have landforms much like those on Earth.

To say that one planet has aliens because of a landform, is to say that we are aliens as well. Don't we have mountains? Yes, you might say, but it's because of tectonic plates pushing against each other. Science has taught us many things, so now we know something foreign to people back then.

Take Christopher Columbus as in example. Before he sailed the ocean, everyone thought that the earth was flat. After he disproved the theory, people saw the earth for what it was: a round, water planet. Another great example would be Galileo, who disproved the theory that Earth was the center of the galaxy and the sun and everything else rotated around it. People had to have curiosity, and the willpower to go on with these expeditions. After they disproved a theory, it made more sense, and the world around us just is. Now, we don't question on how the mountains were made. We don't question on why we have day and night.

We are more educated now, but there are still things we haven't learned. That's why people should have a more open mind about finding the truth. Once we find the truth, we'll move on to bigger things and so on and so on. This mystery is one which piques people's interest, but turning to myth and false facts isn't the way to go. Exploring and learning from new innovations is what makes scientists who they are. They took the time to go through the process of being a certified scientist. To say you are smarter than one is disrespectful towards them, saying all their hard work was worth nothing.

So, to summarize, aliens did not make the landform on Mars. It was a natural occurence that got blown up into bigger proportions because the media wanted to satisfy their own needs to get profit. NASA knows what they are saying, and we should respect their statements until we ,for sure, know ourselves that the statement is false.

Score: 5