Astronomer Paul Minart told News writer Nicholas Osbourne that secret NASA documents in his possession indicate that the so-called "Face on Mars," located in Mars' Cydonia region, was built by human hands.

Minart said an internal NASA report had drawn several dramatic conclusions about the "face." First, not only was it almost certainly an artificial feature and not a naturally-occurring result of geological processes, but the space administration was operating under the assumption that the architects "were human."

According to Minart, the report incorporates data collected by two secret space probes sent to Mars in 1991 and 1992, along with the now famous geographic survey transmitted by the 1976 Viking mission. Previous government statements have left virtually no room for the possibility that the structure was built by intelligent agencies.

Minart went on to say that the report concluded that the "face" was built around 2,500 B.C. in a curious parallel with the construction of the Great Pyramid of Khufu on Earth. He explained his access to the report as a deliberate leak on NASA's part, as the "conservative" space administration looks to gauge possible public reactions to the findings.

Moreover, new methods of photographic enhancement had revealed that the structure also bears a "series of strange inscriptions." A new photograph of the "face" accompanying the News article, apparently relying on these enhancement methods, showed the structure complete with nostrils and an elaborate headdress resembling a crash helmet. Unlike previous computer-enhanced images, in which the feature was showing "teeth" in a "smile," the News picture is frowning.

NASA did not discuss Minart's claims with the Weekly World News, which published the story in its August 24, 1999, issue.

Meanwhile, anomalous data is giving another astronomer chills, the News said. Swiss astrophysicist Armin Rieder held a grim press conference in Geneva announcing that, while he did not want to sound like "an alarmist," his theories indicated that the sun will go out no later than December 2000. As such, he said, "the sad fact is, we're dead."

Rieder based his prediction on "a complex computer model" of the sun's fuel consumption, according to News reporter Thomas Greene. More orthodox forecasts see the sun remaining in a state of fusion-powered activity for billions of years.

The News quoted German astronomer Franz Ehlen as calling Rieder's model "insane."

None of the astronomers quoted in either article appear in the membership rolls of the International Astronomical Union.