NASA spotted a rock formation on Mars that looks just like a giant bear face
- A NASA satellite has beamed back a picture of an interesting Martian rock formation.
- The picture looks like a giant bear.
- NASA has spotted several other amusing rock formations on Mars over the years.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped a picture of a rock formation that looks remarkably like a bear.
"A bear on Mars?" a release from the team analyzing the picture asked.
Hardly, but the resemblance is uncanny in this picture taken on December 12.
The pattern is made by stress fracture running in a circle around a collapsed structure. From the right angle, it looks like a bear's mouth.
The scientists suggest this may have once been an impact crater filled by deposits, which would explain the circular crack.
The raised structure in the middle could have been a volcano or a mud vent, per the release.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a satellite launched in 2005, has provided groundbreaking science on its mission.
But it and other probes have also been a source of light entertainment in the form of funny space photos.
Human brains are known to have a tendency to look for recognizable shapes in what they see, a phenomenon called pareidolia
In 2019, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted the "Star Trek" logo on the Red Planet, for instance.
Others have sworn that a zoomed-in picture from NASA's Mars rover showed alien crabs ready to pounce on your face, which was of course discredited by NASA.
Some have said they've spotted the face of Mahatma Gandhi on the Google Mars map.
The most iconic example of pareidolia is the "Face on Mars," a picture snapped in 1976 by NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft.
The shape, which looks like a human face, attracted many a conspiracy theory.
Unfortunately, when NASA got closer, it turned out the enigmatic face was no more than a ridge.
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