A brand new “face” on the surface on Mars appears in an online video taken from NASA images posted Sunday by a researcher in Argentina, but unlike the classic image of a “Face on Mars” dating back to 1976, this one appears to have something sinister about its appearance. According to the researcher, the new face resembles traditional descriptions of Satan.

Also, unlike with the original Face on Mars image, using readily available software and technology, anyone with a computer can “discover” the new face independently.

The first discovery of a Face on Mars came from an image sent back to Earth from the Viking One spacecraft which was launched by NASA in 1975 and entered the orbit of Mars in June of 1976. Before finally landing on the surface of Mars, the Viking probe sent back hundreds of photographs from orbit, including the following.

Original NASA image of the "Face on Mars"

The image appears to show a “face” that resembles a man wearing a helmet, possibly in the same style as an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.

In fact, NASA scientists themselves, certainly unintentionally, may have started the “Face on Mars” phenomenon, issuing a description of the initial image as revealing, “a huge rock formation in the center, which resembled a human head.”

But when NASA sent more recent probes to Mars, equipped with better cameras and technology, the “face” was revealed to be nothing more than the top of a mesa formation that looked nothing like a “face.”

Public fascination with the Face on Mars became so intense that NASA made it a priority to explore the formation in a region of Mars that scientists had named Cydonia, in future Mars missions — a priority which the NASA scientists fulfilled in 1997.

“We felt this was important to taxpayers,” Jim Garvin, chief NASA scientist with the agency’s Mars Exploration Program. “We photographed the Face as soon as we could get a good shot at it.”

The complete story of NASA’s own “unmasking” of the original Face on Mars can be accessed at this link.

But what about the new face formation? The find was located using NASA images in the Google Mars software by Argentine UFO researcher Marcelo Irazusta. The find was posted Thursday by Scott C. Waring, editor of the popular blog, UFO Sightings Daily, and can be seen in the following video created by Irazusta.

Waring enhanced the still image to point out the alleged face formation.

The newest "face" discovered on Mars

“Marcelo Irazusta from Argentina is one such researcher that found a face so ancient that it predates most dinosaurs here on Earth,” Waring wrote on his blog. “This face is big and its old, at least 500,000,000 to 1.5 billion Earth years old, but we can still make out some great detail, and is 1.5km by 1.03km. How is this possible? The surface of Mars doesn’t change much over the years. Marcelo has some great skills at this, and I see those skills are growing fast.”

To make the shape of the face clearer, Waring also colorized the image.

Colorized version of "Satan Face" on Mars

“The image turns out to be very similar to the popular description of the face of Satan. Your clarity leaves no doubts. Well proportioned eyes, nose, mouth and one of his ears and his typical horns, plus a third eye. The perfect distribution of each of its parts in an area of almost 2 km make it a humanlike image. Could it be coincidence? Or are we looking at evidence of extraterrestrial civilization?”

But to make that decision does not require a new NASA Mars mission. Using the “Explore Mars” feature in the Google Earth software app, amateur explorers can examine the new “Satan” face for themselves. Open the software and enter the coordinates 46°14’12.77″N 80°16’47.24″W to see the formation depicted in the images above.

[All Photos By NASA]