About twenty-five years ago, something happened around Mars. NASA, snapped photos of the object. On Mars, there is a face printed on the plant. People think it was created by aliens. NASA said it was created on it's own. Scientists figured it was just another Martian mesa. Those are common around Cydonia. A couple of days later NASA saw a nose, eyes, and a mouth. Everyone belived it to be a face of an alien, but NASA said it's just a face on Mars.

The face on Mars has become a popular icon. It has starred in Hollywood films, appeared in books, magazines and more! Some people think the face is "bona fide" evidence of life on Mars. Defenders of the NASA budget wish there was an acient civilization on Mars. The face, is located at 41 degrees north martian latitude where it was winter in April '98.

Mission controllers prepared to look again. Mars Global Surveyor is a mapping spacecraft that normally looks straight down and scans the plant like a fax machine. Thousand of anxious web surfers were waiting when the image first appeared on a JPL web site. The pictures were revealing a natural landform. Each pixel in the 2001 image spans 1.56 meters, com[ared to 43 meters per pixel in the best 1976 viking photo.

"As a rule of thumb, you can discern thinkgs in a digital image 3 times bigger than the pixel size". In egyptia-style prramids or even small shacks, you could see what they were! There must have been a degree of surprise among mission controllers back at the Jet Proupulsion Lab when the face apperared on their moniters. NASA, a few days later, unveiled the image for all to see. The authors thought it would be a good way to engage the public and attract attention to Mars.

What the picture actually shows is the Martian equivalent of a buttle or mesa. Landforms common around American West. People say thst it's a lava dome that takes the form of an isolated mesa about the same height as the Face on Mars.