Face off ?

 
Published: Wednesday 30 September 1998

In 1976 NASA's Viking spacecraft snapped a photograph of a feature on Mars that was startlingly familiar to all Earthlings: part of the rocky surface looked just like a human face. Most interpreted this Martian Mount Rushmore as a trick of light and shadow, but others credited it to alien artisans. Now, the 22 year-old mystery is settled once and for all. Last month, the Mars Global Surveyor took images of the same spot, and this time, the geologic formations there resembled a footprint.

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