In 1976, NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft was snapping pictures of possible landing spots for Viking 2, when it noticed a human face staring right at it.

A few days later, NASA released the photo publically, and it caught on fire.

The face has since become a pop icon, and appeared in a Hollywood film, books, magazines, radio talk shows, and haunted a grocery store's checkout line.

It has even attracted conspiracy theorists that think NASA is hiding alien life on Mars.

But they are all incorrect.

The face was discovered in the Cydonia region of Mars.

In Cydonia, mesas are common, and this one just happened to have an unusual shadow.

NASA also unveiled the images to the public, proving they had nothing to hide, otherwise they would have kept this secret.

NASA also stated they wish there was an anicent civilization on Mars.

And Jim Garvin, chief scientist of NASA's Mars

Exploration Program said it is equivalent to a earth butte or mesa.

Imagine if you were a scientist and saw a face on Mars.

You would've been astounded and amazed.

That is exactly what mission control felt like when they saw this bizarre looking landform.

But they quickly discovered it was just another Martian mesa.

The face was discovered in the Cydonia region of Mars.

In Cydonia, mesas are common, and this one just happened to have an unusual shadow.

NASA also unveiled the images to the public, proving they had nothing to hide, otherwise they would have kept this secret.

NASA also stated they wish there was an anicent civilization on Mars.

NASA took another picture in 2001.

This picture looked nothing like the picture in 1976 of a face.

This is because NASA used more advanced cameras than it did in 1976 to come up with a clearer image of the mesa.

The camera used in the 2001 photo had new high-resolution images and 3D altimetry.

Also, each pixel in the camera in 1976 covered 43 meters.

The camera in 2001 had each pixel cover 1.56 meters.

You can also discern things in a digital image 3 times bigger than pixel size.

That's a huge difference in picture quality.

You can see NASA's not trying to hide anything.

The picture was not leaked, so we know NASA meant to show the public the picture.

Don't listen to the cospiracy theorists.

There are no conspiracies or theories.

Just an oddly shaped shadow of a Martian mesa.