Twenty five years ago when NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft was orbiting mars looking for possible landings sights for Viking 2 it spotted a "face" on mars in a region of the Red Planet called Cydonia. NASA revealed the images of this "face" thinking that it would be a good way to attract attention to mars. It worked too, maybe not in the way NASA had hoped though. This "face" caused many people to belive that it was proof that there is or was life on Mars.

NASA explains this "face" formation on Mars as a huge rock formation . . . which resembles a human head . . . formed by shadows giving the illusion of eyes, nose, and mouth. Many skeptics believe that this "face" is proof of life forms on Mars and that NASA is just trying to cover it up. Although if this was proof of life forms on Mars then that would greatly benefit NASA so why would they try and cover it up? Well the answer is they wouldnt. If there was any proof that there was life forms on Mars then NASA would benefit greatly and they would most likely reveal that to the public as well, not hide it.

So what is this "Face of mars" that has had so many people questioning NASA and skepticizing over whether or not there is life on Mars? Well, the latest picture was an MGS image from 2001. This image shows the "Face" for what it actually is, which is a mesa. As it says in the article Unmasking the Face on Mars "What the picture actually shows is the Martian equivalent of a butte or mesalandforms common around the American West." Thats a lava dome that takes the form of an isolated mesa about the same height as the Face on Mars.

This lattest image has been able to show us what the rock land form on Mars actually is. Which is just a mesa. Slowly since the image from the NASA Viking 1 in 1976 we have been getting better and better quality images. With these better quality images we are able to see that this rock land form on Mars doesnt even really look like a face. Slowly the pictures have gotten less hazy and we have been able to better see the "face."

When you look back on that first image, the one from the Viking 1space ship in 1976 its easy to say that the land from on Mars looks like a face. Because it does look like a face in that first bad quality image, but now that we have new technology with better photo taking abilities it is easy to see that what we once may have thought looked like a face. Is just a mesa on Mars. Not proof that there is aliens, or other life forms on Mars. Just a Mesa, that in all reality doesnt actually look all that much like a face.