Face on Mars Is Just a Mesa

In 1976, the Viking 1 spacecraft orbited the planet Mars with the mission of sending images of the surface back to NASA on Earth for possible landing sites for the Viking 2 craft.

For the first time, Earthlings were seeing close-up images of our mysterious neighboring planet. The planet Mars has been the subject of many science fiction books and movies over the years, including the recent Mission to Mars motion picture. Needless to say, many were very interested in seeing what was really there.

Not expecting any surprises, NASA scientists were shocked when Viking 1 sent an image back from the Cydonia region that appeared to be a huge face. It almost resembled the face of an Egyptian pharaoh, which started many people believing this was proof of an ancient civilization on the Red Planet. Since that time, the "Face on Mars" has become a pop icon.

Meanwhile, NASA officials have never believed that the face was anything other than a plain rock formation and have been anxiously waiting to prove this since the Viking missions. So when the Mars Global Surveyor arrived in Mars orbit in September 1997, NASA made it a high priority to take another look at the "Face on Mars." Many were still not satisfied with the second image because there was a good amount of cloud cover that they claimed created a haze over the image that could have obstructed the view. "We felt this was important to taxpayers," explained Jim Garvin, chief scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "We photographed the Face as soon as we could get a good shot at it."

Recently on April 8, 2001, the MGS was able to send back a clearer images of the face on a cloudless day using better imaging technology than the 1976 Viking photo.

"As a rule of thumb, you can discern things in a digital image 3 times bigger than the pixel size," he added. "So, if there were objects in this picture like airplanes on the ground or Egyptian-style pyramids or even small shacks, you could see what they were!"

The photograph revealed the equivalent of a butte or mesa land formation that is common in the American West. "It reminds me most of Middle Butte in the Snake River Plain of Idaho," says Garvin. "That's a lava dome that takes the form of an isolated mesa about the same height as the Face on Mars."

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