NASA Photo Shows Human-like Figure on Mars

Buy an ad on DigitalJournal.com

A few of the newspapers went as far to call the human-like figure an alien, while some took the humor of the situation and declared the figure as Detective Gene Hunt and even "Usama bin Laden."

Detective Gene Hunt was a drunken, sexist policeman from the BBC time-traveling crime series, "Life on Mars."

In all reality, the figure is actually a blurry detail in a huge panoramic photograph snapped by NASA's Spirit rover in early November. The photo was taken on the edge of Mars' Gusev crater and was posted on NASA's website on January 2nd.

NASA has had no comment on the human-like figure even though the newspaper, Times of London, reported that NASA scientists are puzzled by the particularly life-like figure on Mars.

The skeptical Web site BadAstronomy.com, however, scoffed, "Puhlllleeeeze. A man? It's a tiny rock only a few inches high. It's only a few feet from the rover!"

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprising, this is not the first picture to depict a life-like figure on Mars.

A report on NASA's website in 2001 says that twenty-five years prior, NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft was snapping photos while circling the planet, looking for possible landing sites for its sister ship, Viking 2. While snapping photos, the spacecraft spotted a shadowy likeness of a human face. The face was nearly two miles from end to end and was located in a region called Cydonia.

Scientists soon figured out it was a Martian mesa, which are common in the area in and around Cydonia.

NASA released the photo a few days later assuming that the huge rock formation that resembled a face would attract attention to Mars.

Their assumption was certainly true. "The Face on Mars" has appeared in movies, books, magazines, and talk radio shows for over twenty-five years.

Some people think the Face is bona fide evidence of life on Mars -- evidence that NASA would rather hide, say conspiracy theorists. Meanwhile, defenders of the NASA budget wish there was an ancient civilization on Mars.

In April of 1998 and in April of 2001 NASA photographers took more pictures of "The Face on Mars" with a camera that showed a ten times sharper image than the Viking camera.

Thousands of anxious web surfers were waiting when the image first appeared on a JPL web site, revealing ... a natural land form. There was no alien monument after all.