Many conspiracy theorists say that The Face On Mars is proof of alien life. Some even say that NASA is trying to hide evidence of aliens. The face is nothing more then an illusion though, caused by shadows. Although technology was not advanced when the first photo was published, more recent pictures have proven that this is nothing more then a crater with shadows, creating eyes, a nose, and a mouth.

In 1976 when the first photo was released people quickly began to theorize that alien life was on Mars, but this is simply not true. The picture was taken in low resolution and was very blurry. The Viking 1 Spacecraft was circling the planet searching for landing sites for The Viking 2, when a landform that resembled an enormous face was spotted. This enormous two mile long "face" is nothing more then a mesa.

In 1998 a new picture of the mesa was released, but people were still not satisfied. Since it was winter while the mission was launched there was a thick haze over the Red Planet. Many think that NASA is trying to hide evidence that there IS lifeforms on other planets, but this is not true. We as scientists wish to share information on space with the public, but we will not spread false rumors about alien lifeforms when there are none.

On April 8, 2001 we launched another mission to take a more high-resolution photo. Since it was summer there were no clouds to hide the mesa. Mars Global Surveyor rotated 25 degrees to center the Face in the feild of view. They then took a photo using the camera at maximum resolution. After all the hype about alien life on Mars since the first photo was released, it was clear to see that the Face was nothing but a mesa.

After years of research and three missions to take photos of Mars, it is clear to see that the Face was no evidence of life on another planet. The Face is very similar to something like on Earth. Although the mesa has not proven there is life beyond Earth we as humans still do not know what is beyond.