Face on Mars: From Viking Hype to Scientific Refutation and the Emergence of a Modern Alien Faith

To the point

Viking 1’s 1976 image of a face-like feature among pyramids on Mars spurred talk of ancient Martian civilizations and alien builders, a view pushed by Richard C. Hoagland and met with cautious NASA responses, but later high-resolution images from Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Express showed the feature is a natural rock formation shaped by lighting, Mars is geologically active with Olympus Mons and signs of past water flow, rumors of a 'man on Mars' in Spirit imagery were dismissed as pareidolia, and while belief in advanced extraterrestrials has grown into a kind of new religion, ongoing missions like Spirit, Opportunity, and Phoenix continue to provide data supporting natural geology and remind us how easily perception colors interpretation.