This image from Malin Space Science Systems, designers and operators of the Mars Orbital Camera, is the most detailed yet of the enigmatic Face on Mars.

Since its initial discovery in 1976, the various official Mars exploration agencies have generally mocked or ignored the feature. During the initial pass of the Mars Orbital Camera over the area, Malin provided an image to the media that looked a lot like the scratchings of a cat in a litterbox. The image was terrible, distored, and its release was greeted with derision.

This image was later "rectified" and used to discount the whole idea that the face was an artificial construction. Nevertheless, believers continued to argue that the Face was "real" -- the feature certainly is -- and that it was most probably created by some long-extinct civilization.

Mars exploration agencies on the other hand insisted that the feature was an entirely "natural" formation -- without, however, discussing how such a formation could come to be. The principal argument was that the feature was "obviously" an eroded hill, bearing a passing resemblance in some circumstances and from certain distances to a face of some sort.