the constant skeptic

Ok, to give you some background on this, this is a question posited to the “Ask an astrobiologist” section of the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s website.
It has to do with what the *real* truth is behind the ‘face on mars’

Question:

Here’s one for ya. The face on Mars. Now, keep in mind that I’m a UFO alien believer. I’ve been to several websites, read several articles, and watched several videos about the face on Mars. I’ve even seen all the photos. Now, despite what NASA says….THAT’S A FACE!!!! Anyone can see that! It’s not shadow’s or trick-of-light. Why does NASA always cover these things up??? For once, can’t we just be told the TRUTH?

Answer:

I’m sorry to hear that you have been taken in by absurd claims on the web about the Face on Mars. Sure, it looks like a face in low-resolution images like the original Viking photo in 1976. And equally obviously it does not look like a face in the many higher-resolution photos, under different lighting conditions, that have been taken recently by much more powerful cameras in orbit around Mars. In science we try to use the best data available, not jump to conclusions based on a “first look” and doggedly cling to those initial ideas in spite of new, better information. We are also careful to study real images, not computer-generated videos like those you refer to, which just show the concept that was put into the computer, not the real feature on Mars. Many of the original “Face” proponents have come to realize that this mesa does not really look like a face, and one crazy conspiracy theory was that this feature had been bombed between the original photo in 1976 and the better pictures taken during the past decade. NASA has been open about this issue; remember that it was NASA scientists who first identified this feature in the original low-resolution Viking photos. We do not “cover things up”. Indeed, what possible reason could there be for NASA to try to suppress evidence of aliens — that would be stupid on our part. If you are really interested in the TRUTH, I suggest these two websites and the links they provide to the best high-resolution photos of this feature (NASA Science at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast24may_1.htm, Phil Plait’s BadAstronomy at http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/hoagland/face.html).

David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
15 January 2008
Category: Life on Other Planets

thank you for this hilariously smart word-smack-down David Morrison

here is a direct link to the high resolution photo page of the face on mars