text: The first photo was taken in 1976 by the Viking 1 Spacecraft. The craft was circleing Mars trying to find a spot for its sister ship to land. The Viking 2 Spacecraft. The first reason to why people think it is alien. Is the quality of the pictures that were taken. The first picture was taken in 1976 so the resolution of the picture wasnt very good. Which caused it to look like there was a nose, eyes and a mouth. But pictures that were taken years after show that it could have been the quality.