text: There must have been a degree of surprise among mission controllers back at the Jet Propulsion Lab when the face appeared on their monitors. In paragraph three is says that A few days after discovering the face they set it out for all to see, and the caption noted "huge rock formation which resembles a human head formed by shadows giving the illusion of eyes, nose, and mouth." The "Face on Mars" has since become a pop icon. On April 5, 1998, when Mars Global Surveyor flew over cydonia for the first time, and took pictures with there Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) they revealed that there were no aliens and that it was just a landform.