“The Face” One of the spookiest photos of Mars is one taken by the Viking 1 space probe in It shows what looks to be a human face rising up from a flat region of Mars known as the Plains of Cydonia Some of the people thought it was a stone monument built long ago by alien beings that once lived on Mars. In 1998 the Global Surveyor spacecraft sent back new photos of the same area. Was there a face? No, just a bunch of natural rock formations that cast unusual shadows.

Exploration Of Mars Two of the most successful missions in recent years were the 1996 launching of the Mars Global Surveyor and he Mars Pathfinder. Surveyor orbited Mars taking high quality photos of the planet’s surface. Pathfinder descended to the Martian surface, using rockets and a parachute system to slow it’s decent. Large balloons absorbed the shock of the landing. Pathfinder carried technology to study the surface of the planet, using information gathered by studying photographs taken by Surveyor, scientists determined the water recently had seeped of the surface of Mars in some areas.