The 'face' on Mars, a popular landform in Cydonia Region on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Here's a picture you probably won't see in the tabloid racks while waiting in line at the grocery store. This is the famous "Face on Mars," and is the closest image ever of this landform, taken by the best Mars camera ever, HiRISE on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. And it certainly looks like …. the top of mesa, which is exactly what it is. This feature in the Cydonia region of Mars is most likely a lava dome that has created an isolated mesa or butte-like structure, i.e., a hill. Compare this image to the original image from the Viking orbiter from 1976 image, below, which created such a furor, including a whole new culture of conspiracy theories, books, late-night radio talk show discussion and even a full-length feature film. Alas, its just a hill.

We have all seen the famous humanoid face-shaped rock from mars but we know it’s not real, these images and shapes are caused by natural erosion due to the weather patterns and, if you look hard enough and long enough, you will find whatever your mind wants to find, from human faces to pyramids. I myself am not a lunatic, neither do I believe in conspiracy theories, I believe in mathematics and science but I still have an open mind. Something though caught my attention yesterday, whilst watching an interview from last year with Buzz Aldrin. He spoke about space travel and the reasons we should be going back to the moon and even landing on asteroids. I know it was probably a lot of spin to get people talking about and therefore funding space travel, but what he said next definitely got my attention. He spoke about the moons of Mars, saying that on the moon Phobos there is a monolith and that when people see this they will start asking questions about it, some will say God put it there and others will say the universe put it there. These were his words and there is a definite glint in his eye when he speaks about the monolith.

A new Mars Pyramid has been found in a European Space Agency Photo by Richard Heene, Science Detective. To find the photo, go to: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html . Click Mars Facts and Images, click Mars Express images, go to page 27, click "Crater Hale in perspective, looking west". The European Space Agency has leaked evidence clearly showing civilization on planet Mars.This video will show you the evidence,as well as how you can download it and judge for yourself. Also this Video shows a new Head Monument that has been recently identified on the Martian surface.

A major, new complex of massive, ancient terra-forms has been found in the Reull Vallis of Mars. The monuments were photographed by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard the Mars Orbiter Express of the European Space Agency (ESA) on January 15, 2004 from a height of 170 miles above the surface of Mars. The Reull Vallis site includes at least nine striking statues of human and animal faces clearly visible from space, including very large ground drawings featuring the profiles of primates and canines. Like the long-heralded Cydonia site, this intriguing new site also contains a large, pyramid-shaped landform that can be seen at the right bottom of the ESA photograph, where the channel of the Ruell Vallis turns and flows to the south.

The idea that there may be life on Mars has been around for centuries, but the theory got a dubious boost from recently released photos of the surface of Mars (taken by the NASA robot Spirit) apparently showing a human-like figure. Several Internet sites have glommed onto the image and suggested the figure could be alive. But what is it? Just a rock, astronomers say

NASA started it all back in 1976 with an image of an interesting mountain on Mars and a caption that described it as appearing to have eyes and nostrils. Thirty years later, the Face on Mars still inspires myths and conspiracy theories. New images from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter will confirm for many that the features are natural, while no doubt offering tantalizing "clues" to others of an ancient intelligent civilization at work. The spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera provides data the researchers turn into colorized perspective views, which simulate the scene as though you were flying high over the region in an aircraft. The data was obtained in July and the images released today.

Author George J. Haas will speak at the Lakewood branch of the Ocean County Library, 301 Lexington Ave., on Sept. 13, 2004 at 7 p.m. Haas is the author of �The Cydonia Codex, Reflections from Mars" which is about the discovery of artificial structures on Mars.

Millions of amateur astronomers are poring over pictures of the Red Planet. Experience the thrill of discovery - or self-delusion - for yourself!

Several years ago, I noticed that a roadside electrical outlet looked like a face. So I photographed it. Later, I began to notice that ordinary items around my home - doorknobs, a bathtub drain - also seemed to have eyes, noses, and mouths. Once I started seeing such faces, I began to spot them everywhere! Was I going crazy? No, I was just seeing my world in a new way.

We�re back on Mars with Spirit and Opportunity roving the surface and engaging the public in the search for evidence of water. Overhead, orbiters image the surface in exquisite detail. People worldwide are attentive to Mars -- it can even be easily seen in the evening sky with the naked eye. All of this makes Mars the logical focus for teaching science as a part of current events, and for dealing with pseudoscientific claims about Mars.

When NASA announced recently that Mars once harbored the conditions necessary for life to exist, those of us who live in the Yucatan -- especially the Maya -- let out a collective groan. We fear another crackpot invasion. Ever since Erich Von Daniken published his best-selling "The Chariots of the Gods" in 1968, many misguided people around the world believe the Maya are the descendants of ancient space travelers. And so they flock here, usually to poke around Mayan ruins looking for telltale signs of alien visitation.

Astronomer Philip Plait is tired of radio personality Richard Hoagland's claims. He's had enough of Hoagland's assertions that NASA is covering up evidence of extraterrestrial life, that the infamous Face on Mars was built by sentient aliens and, of late, that otherworldly machine parts are embedded in the red planet's dirt. And then there's the mile-long translucent Martian worm.

Perhaps our next Mars probe should be called the Tinkerbell. The fairy from "Peter Pan" was brought to life by children shouting, "I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!" The same chorus of belief in Martians resounds with each downpour of images and data from the apparently dead Red Planet. The photos sent home by the rovers Spirit and Opportunity have already set off a flurry of Internet chatter amongst amateur space enthusiasts. Would be astrobiologists (a new field that weds astronomy with biology) claim to see everything from fossilized coral and seashells to an admittedly creepy looking claw. The European Space Agency's orbiting Mars Express has produced an image to fire speculation too -- a grainy object that some identify as a stepped pyramid with an underground entrance.

US space scientists have defended themselves against allegations that they tampered with images of Mars. The claim is that Nasa experts "tweaked" pictures sent back by the two Mars rovers to make it redder. A more extreme version of the conspiracy theory says Nasa doctored the colours to hide evidence of life, such as green patches, New Scientist magazine reported.

Under the surface of Mars lies an ancient, nuclear-powered city left by Martian citizens. At least, that's what a group of space researchers think. And they're trying to prove it by invoking a little-known remnant of President Clinton's last days called the "Data Quality Act" that went into force in October of this year. The filing, dated October 31, 2002, gives NASA 40 days to address the complaint that there is faulty data on Arizona State University's THEMIS Web site.