NASA orbiter captures image of a bear’s face on Mars
A NASA orbiter turned its camera to the Martian surface, the face of a bear seemed to be looking back, according to CNN.
A camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, called the High Resolution Imaging Experiment, or HiRISE, captured an image of the unusual geological feature in December, CNN said.
The photo shows a circular fracture pattern on the Martian surface shapes the head, while two craters resemble eyes, a V-shaped collapse structure creates the illusion of the nose of a bear.
The circular fracture could be due to the settling of a deposit on top of a buried impact crater that had been filled in with lava or mud, CNN reports. The nose-like feature is possibly a volcanic vent or a mud vent.
The University of Arizona, which developed the camera with Ball Aerospace, shared the image on Jan. 25, CNN reports.
The photo is reminiscent of another celestial “face” glimpsed by a NASA space observatory in October 2022, when the sun appeared to smile due to dark spots called coronal holes, CNN said.
The orbiter circles Mars every 112 minutes, flying from about 160 miles (255 kilometers) above the south pole to 200 miles (320 kilometers) over the north pole, according to CNN.
The spacecraft and its suite of instruments help NASA scientists study the Martian atmosphere, weather and climate, and how they change over time, CNN said.
The orbiter searches for evidence of water, ice and complex terrain and scouts future landing sites for other missions, according to CNN.