On July of 1976 the American Viking 1 Orbiter beamed down images of the desolate Martian landscape. One of the images that was sent, would stir up conspiracy theorists for decades to come. The infamous “Face on Mars” photo has spawn off several theories on what could have created it. From ancient Martian civilizations, to ancient humans from Atlantis having the technology to colonize Mars. Even theories of friendly aliens from nearby stars who had landed on Mars and created a human face as a present to us, has been shuffled in the mix.

The “Face on Mars” always fascinated me, but I never really put that much interest into it. I’ve always believed that pareidolia was responsible for creating that haunting image on the Martian desert.

A new hi-res image that was released a few days ago by NASA dispels all theories and puts an end to the 4 decade long question: What is the face on Mars?

This new image is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE) on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. As it orbited above the Mars region known as Cydonia, the orbiter snapped several high resolution photos of the supposed face. Putting to rest the theories.

Full source: Universe Today

Viking had much lower spatial resolution than HiRISE, and a different lighting geometry, which made it look like a face. Yes, it does look like a face in this image. But things aren’t always as they appear, especially in low resolution and bad light. These newer and better images, starting with the Mars Orbiter Camera on the Mars Global Surveyor (which took images of the Cydonia region in 1998 and 2001) and now HiRISE — which shows incredible detail from 300 kilometers above the surface — have certainly set the record straight. Unfortunately, some people still cling to the notion of a face on Mars.