Imagine if you are on an spacecraft, and you see something unusual. It looks like a face on the surface of the planet Mars. Your first instinct might be that it was made by aliens or creatures we have never seen. Well, this did happen; in 1976 NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft was flying over Mars and they stumbled upon what looked like a humans face, but they were not positive what or why it was there. This Face is just a natural landform because scientists proved it, there was no sign of abnormal activities, and mesas are not unusual in Mars.

This Face is a natural landform because scientists proved it was not made by aliens. The author states, "And so on April 5, 1998, when Mars Global Surveyor flew over Cydonai for the first time Micheal Malin and Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) team snapped a picture ten times sharper than the original Viking photos. Thousands of anxious web surfers were waiting when the image first appeared on a JPL web site, revealing... a natural landform. There was no alien monument after all. This shows how the Face was only a landform. "The text states, "Nevertheless, on April 8, 2001-a cloudless summer day in Cydonia-Mars Global Surveyor drew close enough for a second look. 'We had to roll the spacecraft 25 degrees to center the Face in the field of view' said Garvin. 'Malin's team captured an extraordinary photo using the camera's absolute maximum resolution.' Each Pixel in the 2001 image spans 1.56 meters, compared to 43 meters per pixel in the best 1976 Viking photo." This exemplifies how scientists used advanced technology to take an accurate picture of the Face. What they found was that it was a mesa.

Again this shows how scientists took advanced pictures and all they saw was a natural landform.

Furthermore, there was not any abnormal activity to prove it was aliens. Gavin said, "As a rule of thumb you can discern things in digital image 3 times bigger than the pixel size." This shows how the camera was powerful enough to have shown if it was really an alien monument. Similarly, Gavin states, "So, if there were objects on this picture like airplanes on the ground or Egyptian-style pyramids or even small shacks, you could see what they were!" This adds on to the idea that if there had been an alien civilization they would have been able to capture anything that was out of the normal.

Additionally, these landforms are not unusual on Mars. Infact, there are similar landforms on planet Earth. The article states, "Scientist figured it was just another Martian mesa, common enough around Cydonia." This shows how mesas are common in Mars, and they are not strange to be seen. Furthermore, the text states, "What the picture shows in the Martian equivalent of a butte or mesa-landforms common around the American West. 'It reminds me most of Middle Butte in the Snake River of Idaho,' says Garvin. 'That's a lava dome that takes the form of an isolate mesa about the same height as the Face on Mars.'" This exemplifies how these landforms are not just in Mars, but also on planet Earth. However, this specific landform had unusual shadows that made it look like an Egyptian Pharaoh, but the picture tooken byThe Mars Global Surveyor proves that it was a natural landform. This camera took a picture using the camera's absolute maximum resolution.

Clearly, the Face on Mars was just a mesa. There was no explanation found of how it could have been formed by aliens. First, there was no evidence found that it was an alien artifact; cameras proved that it was a landform. Plus, mesas are not unusual in the planet Mars. The Face seen on the Mars was another one of Mother Nature's ability to create spectacular scenes in the landscape.