by Paul B. Thompson Nebula Editor pscppol@aol.com On April 6, 1998, the Mars Global Surveyor began photographing the Cydonia region of the planet Mars as part of its ongoing mission to map the surface of the Red Planet. Launched in 1996, the Mars mission hit the headlines last year when it sent down the Mars Pathfinder to the planet's surface. The image of the little Sojourner vehicle running around in the Martian rocks and sand like some R/C toy from Radio Shack captured the attention and the imagination of the entire world. Ever since a Viking probe photographed it in 1976, the "Face" on Mars has provoked controversy and no small amount of derision from scientists. (I personally was skeptical of the Face, thinking it more suitable for the pages of the Weekly World News than any serious science journal, but I changed my mind -- a little -- after talking at length with Vincent DiPietro, who has made some genuinely interesting studies of the Face.) The first new enhanced photo seemed to indicate that the Face is, indeed, a natural geological formation. Contrary to discontented rumbles on Usenet, I don't expect NASA to censor or tamper with these images -- after all, they're beaming in over the open void and being downloaded around the world. Any discrepancy could be easily detected. Also, I am of the firm opinion that NASA would be delighted to find evidence of life on Mars. What better lever could they ask for to pry funding loose from Congress for a manned mission to our mysterious neighbor? Nevertheless, each new photo of Cydonia has ignited firestorms of debate, as geologists, exobiologists and UFOlogists argue whether the images show artificial structures or natural geological formations. The newest photo, showing the so-called "City Square," has raised this debate yet another notch. The City Square, located between two large pyramidal hills, is the centerpiece of what some believe is a geometric network of artificial structures. According to NASA's 1989 McGill survey, Cydonia was once covered by a thousand meters of erodible sediment which was blown away by strong Martian winds over the millenia, leaving "a knobby terrain that is a combination of exhumed remnants of cratered terrain, igneous intrusives and cratered plateau material." The features of this knobby terrain, according to NASA, include the Face, the Pyramids and the City Square. However, in a new paper entitled "A Geological and Geomorphic Investigative Approach to Some of the Enigmatic Cydonia Landforms," geologist James L. Erjavel has disputed NASA's conclusion, claiming that the Cydonia photos show only slight erosion of the region, and that erodible material was present only to a depth of 200 meters. Needless to say, the debate over the Cydonia anomalies will continue and escalate as new data becomes available. The Surveyor mission will continue until 2000, and several more opportunities to photograph the Cydonia area will occur in the weeks ahead. ParaScope will bring you the latest images as we get them. You can also check with the NASA Mars Mission News site for the latest pix; if the Mission News site is bogged down, try one of the Mars Global Surveyor Mirror Sites. © 1998 ParaScope, Inc. Photos: NASA/JPL 1. Enhanced version of new Cydonia "Face" photo. Click here to view large version of this photo. Click here to read NASA geologist's notes on the processing of this image. 2. Unenhanced version of new Cydonia "Face" photo. Click here to view large version. 3. Photo of Cydonia anomaly taken on July 25, 1976 by the Viking 1 Orbiter spacecraft. (Click here to view large version.) Viking 1 snapped the photo above while looking for a landing site for the Viking 2 Lander. The outline of a face seems much clearer in this photo, but the level of detail is much lower than the new Mars Global Surveyor photo. According to NASA, the black "speckles" were caused by bit errors in the transmission of photographic data from Mars to Earth. 4. The "City Square," NASA's most recent photo of the Cydonia anomalies, sent by MGS on April 14, 1998. Some believe this is the centerpiece of a geometric network of artificial structures. (Click here to view high-resolution version.)   Message board: Share your views on the Face on Mars! ParaScope Image Gallery: More Pix Nebula: UFOs & Extraterrestrials