Many people seem to believe that "The Face on Mars" is alien activity. However, "It reminds me most of Middle Butte in the Snake River Plain of Idaho. That's a lava dome that takes the form of an isolated mesa about the same heigh as the Face of Mars." In that quote Jim Garvin, cheif scientist for NASA's Mars Explaration Program, states that he mainly recongnizes it from the land forms on Earth, rather than seeing it as alien actvity.

When the first picture was taken in 1976, technology was not as great as it is now or even in 2001. Each pixel in the 2001 image spans 1.56 meters, compared oto 43 meters per pixel in the best 1976 Viking photo. Meaning the qualtiy of picture taken in 1976, which convinced most people of alien, did not have great or even decent quality. On April 5, 1998, Mars Global Surveyor flew over Cydonis for the first time, Michael Malin and his Mars Orbiter Camera (MOS) team snapped a picture ten times sharper than the orginal Viking photo.

After taking the picture thousands of anxious we surfers were waiting when the image first appeared on a JPL web site, revealing.... a natural landform. There was no alien monument after all. When this statement was said not everyone was satisfied. The Face on Mars is located at 41 degrees north martian latitude where it was winter in April of '98-- a cloudy time of the year in the Red Planet. The camera in board had MGS had to peer through wispy clouds to see the Face. Perhaps, said skeptics alien markings are hidden in the haze. Which that is a resonable argument, but not being 100% postitive is too risky to throw into the public.

Garvin made an arguement that states, "As a rule if thumb, you can descern things in a digital image 3 times bigger than the pixel size," he added. "So, if there were objests in this picture like airplans on the ground or Egyptian-style pyramids or even small shack, you could see what they were!"

Using all of the evidence and arguments, and just by seeing the picture, it was just a strange occurence that a natural landform found on Mars was shape as a human face. Also the fact that the picture was taken about fourty years ago changes a lot. The amount and the quality of technology has changed tremendosely.