Astonishing crater on Mars looks like a bear | Mashable.

Astonishing Mars crater looks like a bear

You read that right.

A beary cool Martian crater. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University Of Arizona

At Mashable, we celebrate bears.

And although there are no bears on Mars — yet wee microbes may have once thrived on the Red Planet eons ago — we will celebrate a Martian feature that looks like a bear. Mars is teeming with fascinating craters, so it's only natural that one of them resembles one of the most perseveringsurprising, and downright impressive known critters in the galaxy.

NASA satellite orbiting Mars, called the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, has a powerful camera (called the High Resolution Imaging Experiment, or HIRISE) that captures detailed views of the Martian surface. It recently found this bear-like area.

"This feature looks a bit like a bear’s face," wrote Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona(Opens in a new window), which operates the HIRISE camera. "What is it really?"

He continues:

"There’s a hill with a V-shaped collapse structure (the nose), two craters (the eyes), and a circular fracture pattern (the head). The circular fracture pattern might be due to the settling of a deposit over a buried impact crater. Maybe the nose is a volcanic or mud vent and the deposit could be lava or mud flows?"

Couldn't agree more.

A Martian feature that looks like a bear.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University Of Arizona

Down on Mars, NASA is currently scouring the planet for hints of past life — if it ever existed, that is. After all, water once flourished on the now dry, freezing, and harsh planet.

Specifically, the space agency's car-sized Perseverance rover is exploring the dried-up delta in Mars' Jezero Crater, a place planetary scientists believe once hosted a lake. "This delta is one of the best locations on Mars for the rover to look for signs of past microscopic life," NASA said(Opens in a new window).

Indeed, planetary scientists might not ever spot signs of past life on the Red Planet's surface (they might need to look for microbes that could be alive and well underground), but one thing is assured: On a world millions of miles away, there is a geologic feature that looks like an excellent representative of Earth. Thank you, Martian bear.

More in NASA

Comments

  1. i beg to differ
    https://media1.tenor.co/images/d7e6370da47762d360163d77c99a9e12/tenor.gif?c=VjFfZmFjZWJvb2tfd2ViY29tbWVudHM&itemid=23333564

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  2. Grant Little #moarmoonbearz

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  3. https://giphy.com/gifs/winnie-the-pooh-bear-IygPnVn0W9Mru

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  4. That's Jesus! Amen!

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  5. I am reminded of the Smiley Face on Mars from the movie and DC Comic "Watchmen" as shown by Dr. Manhattan..

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  6. They made that supposed nose and mouth, not possible.

    these NASA discoveries are looking more and more like a lie.

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  7. Where there's discovery and NASA I already know it's true.

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  8. It looks like a bear.

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  9. Has @GailSimone been to Mars?

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  10. yo ahí veo una restauración de arte sacro

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  11. https://tenor.com/view/doge-dogeintensifies-intensifies-gif-26078979

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  12. https://tenor.com/view/aw-the-great-root-bear-aw-bear-mascot-mascots-gif-22258243

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  13. There's all sorts of weird stuff on Mars, most of which we are not able to see clearly.

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    Replies
    1. Nothing ever happens on Mars...

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  14. Obviously an imprint made by an alien lander of the baba-yaga type. You can see at least three indents made by the legs.

    Couldn't possibly be anything else. (;-)

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  15. Now NASA knows Paddington was there first.

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    Replies
    1. "I'm here from Darkest Peru... Somehow, I have an Oxford Accent..."

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  16. weird how his eyes a perfect circles

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    Replies
    1. Molten lava, gas trapped underneath pop perfect circle, see that on Earth has well.

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    2. There are a number of other perfect circles in the photograph. If you are suggesting that the 'eyes' are deliberate, why are the other circles there?

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  17. Come back to Earth, Paddington, all is forgiven!!! I know you got cross as you felt, after having tea with Her Maj, that it made you a bit more entitled to your favourite things. I appreciate that I ran out of marmalade, but I promise I've managed to get some REALLY good stuff now, and bought a fresh loaf especially. Therefore, the sandwiches will all be ready (crusts cut off, of course,) for when you arrive home.

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  18. It looks more like a bad tempered grizzly, which is much more appropiate for the red planet, but it seems the toy, ' Paddington ', is more familiar to adults in the UK.

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  19. Where has all the cloud photos gone that look like corgis?

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  20. You must have lots of imagination to see Paddington bear here ;)))

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  21. Too funny. Someone on Mars must be a Paddington fan.

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  22. So we have this, but not a peep about the Project Veritas video showing a Pfizer exec admitting to manipulating viruses to create new vaccines for profit? That didn't make it? Viral on social media and on Fox news but the rest of the media are silent?

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  23. Humans have this weird need to anthropomorphize everything

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    Replies
    1. The term is 'pareidolia', defined as 'the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern'. It explains for example the famous tortilla with the face of Jesus.

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  24. This is art by George Santos.

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    Replies
    1. Nice! For those who don't get your reference, Santos is the guy of whom it is claimed that everything he says is a lie, including 'and' and 'but'.

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  25. I need to never come back to the DM.

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  26. These space guys really know how to mess with our heads. Just ignore them.

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  27. hello bear. have a good day.

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  28. Check out the pyramids and the face on Mars...all super strange...

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    Replies
    1. No pyramids and the face is a result of flaws in the photograph processing

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    2. And the squirrel. And Bigfoot.

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  29. They should call that area of Mars Paddington.

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  30. Cute picture, but after all the woke articles, the schoolchild should be referred to as they and not he.

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  31. Are we not all the hallucination of Paddington Bear on the Planet Mars?

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    Replies
    1. Ah, ze French philozopher speeks! Ze life, is she not a glass of absinthe?

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    2. La Lune Caresse la poitrine d'un Negresse!

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    3. I am full of ad-Miro-ation for your cultural breadth!

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    4. An Artist that really leaves you hungry for more!

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  32. When I go on my Mars cruise, I'll be sure to take a good look at Bearface.

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  33. Not Paddington , it's an angry bird from the Mars demolition series

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  34. Does this prove that Mars is flat?

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  35. It's Xi Ping Pong of China. He has marked his new territory.

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  36. How is this even possible? Aliens?

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  37. Looks more like what next door neighbour's dog deposited in my garden yesterday.

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  38. What a load of tripe.

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  39. This looks like the remnants of an alien craft landing site;) It is a beautiful bear!

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  40. I dont see a bear, I see one of those #NAFOfellas.

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  41. It's likely 🦉 face.

    ReplyDelete

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