Decode the mysterious face on Mars

The giant face on Mars that has caused a stir over the past three decades is just an ordinary rock in the desert.

Photo published by NASA in 1976. Photo: NASA.

A photo taken by American Viking spacecraft in July 1976 showed that there was something like a human face on Mars. The face has two eyes, nose and mouth. reported, in the press conference announcing the photo, the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) used the phrase "Mars face" when talking about strange shapes.

At that time the picture shocked the public. During the past 34 years, many speculations have been made about the origin of the giant face. For example, one hypothesis is that it is the art work of a civilization that once existed on Mars. Then the creatures that created the civilization migrated to another planet. The term NASA used in the press conference along with some fantasy movies about Mars stimulated the imagination of public opinion.

On July 29, the US Aeronautics Agency (NASA) published a photo of "human face" taken with HiRISE high-definition camera on the face. The picture shows it as a large rock in the desert on the red planet, Universe Today said.

This is a picture of "face" at the nearest distance. When taking a photo, the HiRISE camera is about 300 km from the Martian surface.

Rock formations are the rising part of a huge rock formation. It has a flat top and steep slopes like the cliffs on earth. Located in the Cydonia region of Mars, rock dunes are several kilometers long and several tens of meters high.

NASA explained that, in the picture published in 1976, the rock dune looked like a human face by combining its concave surface and shade due to the projection of sunlight.

In fact, in 1998 and 2001 NASA spacecraft captured the "face" twice to prove it was just a rock. However, those photos still don't quell rumors.