For over thirty years, the question about the Face on Mars has been posed; alien life or natural landform? Although scientists have been grilled by the media, there is only truly evidence that the Face is a natural landform, much like a butte or mesa, landforms common around the american west, despite what conspirasy theorists have to say.

NASA's Viking 1 first photographed the formation in 1976, the formation described as "An enormous head nearly two miles from end to end."

When NASA reavealed the image to the public a few days later, claims of alien life began surfacing. The article 'Unmasking the Face on Mars' stated that "The Face on Mars had since become a pop icon. It has starred in a Hollywood film, appeared in books, magazines, radio talk showseven haunted grocery store checkout lines for 25 years! Some people think the Face is bona fide evidence of life on Marsevidence that NASA would rather hide, say conspiracy theorists. Meanwhile, defenders of the NASA budget wish there was an ancient civilization on Mars." The media blew up at the idea of the Face being signs of intelligent life forms on other planets, despite what the scientists had to say about what the face truly was.

Eighteen years after the Viking missions ended, the Mars Global Suveyor flew over Cydonia for the first time (Cydonia is the area of mars where the face was discovered) a mars orbitor team snapped a picture ten times sharper than the original Viking photos. The photos revealed a matural land form, not an alien monument at all. On April 5, 1998 the Mars Global Surveryor flew over Cydonia on a clouldess summers day, managing to get close enough for the Mars orbitior team to capture 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.

Jim Garvin, cheif scientist of Nasa's exploration program says As a rule of thumb, you can discern things in a digital image 3 times bigger than the pixel size, he added. So, if there were objects in this picture like airplanes on the ground or Egyptian-style pyramids or even small shacks, you could see what they were! The picture of the Face is actually showing the Martain equivellent of a butte or mesa- landforms common around the American West. It reminds me most of Middle Butte in the Snake River Plain of Idaho." Says Garvin. "Thats a lava dome that takes the form of an isolated mesa about the same height as the Face on Mars.

Despite what the media has to say about the Face on Mars, it is nothing more than a natural landform. Ever since NASA realeased the images, they have been under a magnifying glass. Conspiracy theorists have claimed that the face is anything but a natural land mass, evidence of aliens, yet the scientists at Nasa have time and time again proven them wrong. As we explore the great unknown, we stumble onto unfamiliar and strange things and ideas. As exciting as an alien monument would be, the face is nothing more than a natural landform on the great red planet.

Source: "Unmasking the Face on Mars", May 24, 2001 (retrieved from science. nasa. gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast24may_1/)