Outside of Earth is a mystery to mankind. Slowly through the 20th and 21st centuries we have been exploring the space around us. A close neighbor, Mars, is one of the most famous sci-fi planets of all. Movies, books, etc. have been made based on Mars. Martians or even just plain old aliens have been the tall tale of our time, but could a discovery change the argument between aliens being fake or real. The Face on Mars is a turning point for all people. I am a scientist at NASA who strongly believes that the Face is just a landform on Mars surface because over time the picture quality has gotten better and has made the pictures of the Face come out clearer making it easier to see the definition of the shape.

The first sighting or picture taken of the Face was in 1976. The Viking 1 was circling the planet, snapping photos for possible landing sites for its sister ship Viking 2 when a picture was snapped of what looked like a human face. Regular citizens were shocked at the photo along with scientists. This picture as seen is very blurry. Definition of the landmark is not very clear and with that picture comes many questions; What is this thing? How did it get there? Why is it there? So many questions that no one could answer. So us as humans jumped to the most conclusive answer would could come up with and the answer was that it was made by aliens. NASA quickly turned down the accusation because there was no evidence supporting the idea. In the text the author said, "Each pixel in the 2001 image spans 1.56 meters, compared to 43 meters per pixel in the best 1976 Viking photo." This shows how different the picture quality is between 1976 and 2001. Also many people were not satisfied with the picture eighteen long years after the Viking missions ended. So on April 5, 1998 the Mars Global Surveyor flew over Cydonia for the first time. Michael Malin and his Mars Orbiter Camera team snapped a picture ten times sharper than the original Viking pictures. Thousands of people wanted to see another glimpse of the Face maybe even a better one. The image appeared on a JPL web site, revealing a natural landform. After eighteen years of conspiracy it was proven that the Face was a mesa.

In conclusion the picture from 1998 is how I prove that the Face is just a natural landform. The picture quality has changed dramatically and has put conspiracy theorists in their place. I strongly believe that NASA tried to be on the peoples' side, afterall no one really knew what the Face was at first. As we continue on discovering our universe we will surely come across many inccidents like the Face and maybe one day the outcome won't be the same.