Have you heard of the photo taken in 2001 that revealed a strange, unusual, "Face on Mars?" In 1976, NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft was circling Mars in search for a landing spot for its sister ship. During the look for a site, the spacecraft noticed something that resembled a human face. This discovery brought up a huge debate between other NASA scientist and conspiracy theorists. The people thought that the Face was a confirmation of life on Mars, but we scientist can ensure you that the Face is just a natural landform. The picture captured of the Face on Mars is just a natural landform because Marian mesas are common around where it was spotted, Mars Global Suveyor confirmed there was no alien monument, and high-resolution images from NASA revealed that the Face is just a mesa.

The Face on Mars was discovered on a red planet called Cydonia. When Jet Propulsion Lab seen the photographs captured by the NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft, they figured that it was just another Martain mesa. Jet Propulsion Lab came to the conclusion that it was just a mesa because in the text it states, "Scientist figured it was just another Martian mesa, common enough around Cydonia..." From this the reader can infer that mesas are often found on this planet. Not only did Jet Proplusion Lab believe it was just a natural landform, Mars Global Suveyor also believed it was created naturally.

On April 5, 1998, Mars Global Suveyor confirmed there was no alien monument after all. The spacecraft flew over Cydonia and also captured a picture of the pop icon, the Face on Mars,. The Mars Global Surveyor took a photograph, but ten times sharper than the original photograph from NASA's Viking photos. This picture sure proved that there were no alien monuments. However, people believed it was too cludy to see clearly. Therefore, a high-resolution image from more recent technology offically confirmed that the Face is just a mesa.

Mission controllers from Mars Global Surveyor prepared to take another look at the Face on Mars. On April 8, 2001, the spacecraft flew over Cydonia again and captured a photo as clear as day. Jim Garvin, chief scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said," Malin's team captured an extraordinary photo using the camera's absolute maximum resolution." This photograph showed that the Face on Mars is equivalent to landforms found around the American West.

In conclusion, the picture captured of the Face on Mars is just a natural landform because Marian mesas are common around where it was spotted, Mars Global Suveyor confirmed there was no alien monument, and high-resolution images from NASA revealed that the Face is just a mesa. I believe that this was an amazing discovery and gave us, NASA scientist, a challenge to go out and find evidence to prove conspiracy theorists's accustuations.