The Face on Mars: Once and for All
For almost 25 years, it has been the subject of wonder, debate and wild
speculation. And despite new images that seemed to have settled the matter, the
possibility of some unknown history or civilization continues to fascinate us.
When the Viking Orbiter radioed back an image from the Cydonia region of Mars
in 1976, scientists were amused by a formation that strongly resembled a human
or humanoid face staring straight up into the heavens. Most scientists didn't
think much of the formation, except as a quirky coincidence - a trick of
light and shadow on a somewhat oval-shaped outcropping on the Martian plain.
They knew that the resolution from the orbiter wasn't especially sharp and that
they really couldn't tell from the blurry, grainy image exactly what this thing
really looked like. There were many more features of the Red Planet that were of
far greater interest to planetary scientists than what was dubbed "the Face
on Mars," and it was more or less forgotten. After all, there was no
intelligent life on Mars, and the idea that some sentient race of beings
deliberately created this face was ridiculous.
Or was it? A few years after Viking took the images, the face was "rediscovered" by Vincent DiPietro and Gregory Molenaar,
two engineers at the Goddard Spaceflight Center. When the image of the Face was
released to the public, it became an instant sensation. Despite NASA's downplay
of the image and assurances that it was not "real," the formation's
likeness to a human face was so uncanny that many people seriously wondered if
there were a chance it could be real. The Face appeared on two separate
frames of the Viking scans, each taken when the sun was at different angles, and
in both cases the features of the face remained. The proportions seemed to be
correct. And even though the right side of the Face was in deep shadow, it
appeared to be quite symmetrical - something that was highly unlikely in a
natural formation. And there was more.
Who Could Have Built It?
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