Although skeptics are proclaiming that there is life on Mars, NASA has scientifically proven the true, less exciting conclusion: the mysterious face seen on the Red Planet is just a natural landform called a Martian mesa. Photographs from different spacecrafts have revealed an image on Mars that appears to have a "shadowy likeness of a human face". Shadows on the object give "the illusion of eyes, nose, and mouth." Many believe this is a key piece of evidence showing past or present alien life. However, NASA has examined multiple facts to turn down this claim.

In 1976, NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft captured the first look at this mystertious figure. While looking for landing sites for Viking 2, its sister ship, the spacecraft came across the Face in a region on Mars called Cydonia. Scientists conluded that the formation was a Martian mesa with shadows creating facial features. Although the claim was made, the image created suspicion in many. What if the Face was an alien artifact? However, on April 5, 1988, Mars Global Surveyor took another photograph, and this image was ten times sharper than the 1976 picture. Again the Face was shown as the same type of natural landform. Finally, in 2001, a third picture of the Face, taken by the latest Mars Global Surveyor, created solid evidence to the past conlusion. Also, a discovery of life on Mars would benefit the comapany of NASA. Therefore, the organization would not hide a discovery of life on the planet, as many skeptics believe the comapany would do so.

The most plausible theory is that the Face a natural Martian mesa. Three photographs from spacecrafts support this claim, and the fact that the landform is in Cydonia, an area with many of these formations, further backs this conclusion. NASA has no reason to hide new scientific discoveries of life on different planets, and the company is not doing so here. Although the discovery of unknown life would be an extraordinary feat, scientists must continue to research into different areas of space, hoping to find evidence for such conclusion.