Scientists discover a formation on Mars resembling a bear - NPR

The University of Arizona shared an image, pictured, of a enactment connected Mars that resembles a bear. NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona hide caption

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NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

The University of Arizona shared an image, pictured, of a enactment connected Mars that resembles a bear.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

Scientists recovered an unexpected find connected the aboveground of Mars: a enactment resembling the look of a bear.

A camera connected NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped a photograph of the enactment connected Dec. 12. The University of Arizona, which operates the camera, shared the image connected Wednesday.

Two beady eyes are formed by 2 craters. A elevation with a "V-shaped illness structure" resembles a snout. A "circular fracture pattern" outlines a head.

"The circular fracture signifier mightiness beryllium owed to the settling of a deposit implicit a buried interaction crater," the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory says. "Maybe the chemoreceptor is simply a volcanic oregon mud vent and the deposit could beryllium lava oregon mud flows?"

"Maybe conscionable grin and carnivore it," the University of Arizona adds.

It isn't the archetypal clip scientists person recovered photos from extracurricular of Earth with an eerie resemblance to entities connected this planet. Humans person a knack for recognizing images oregon patterns wherever they don't exist, a improvement known arsenic pareidolia.

In 1997, scientists discovered a ample stone connected Mars they named "Pooh Bear." And successful 1976, NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft spotted a mesa that resembled a quality face, astir 2 miles from extremity to end, connected a portion of Mars called Cydonia.