The New Face of Mars

The Martian feature known as the "face" is located in an area called Cydonia in the Arabia Terra region.

This area of Mars is a transition zone between the southern highlands and the northern plains, and it contains great valleys and ancient remnant mounds called "massifs".

In a photo (see above) that was taken on July 25 1976 by NASA's Viking 1 Orbitor one of these massifs became what is now known as the infamouse "Face".

The speckled appearance of the image is due to missing data, called bit errors, caused by problems in transmission of the photographic data from Mars to Earth. Bit errors make up part of one of the "eyes" and "nostril" on the erroded rock that resembles a face . Shadows in the rock formation also give the illusion of a nose and mouth.

Even though NASA scientist new the face was just an illusion they released the pic to the public anyway.

Soon after the picture was released a myth developed. The myth is that the "face" is an artifical structure built by an ancient civilization or aliens.

This myth has been around all my life basically. I grew up with the face on Mars. I have seen specials about the "face" on T.V. like every other year or so.

Now, with new images created with data from the Mars Express Orbitor, released Sep 21 2006, we can see the remnant massif for what it is

.......a remnant massif..., Not a face created by an ancient civilization or aliens. Just a mound of rock and dirt.