Facial pareidolia refers to the human tendency or illusion of seeing facial structures in everyday objects, such as seeing the “man in the Moon” or Jesus’ face on a piece of toast.
However, there is a newly discovered crater on Mars that may be a case of ‘bear-adoilia.’
There’s no denying that the crater resembles a bear’s face. Over the years, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE) has revealed some bizarre craters on Mars, such as the famous smiley face or an elephant and a bird.
But what could have caused the strange feature in the middle of the crater that resembles a bear’s snout?
“There’s a hill with a V-shaped collapse structure (the nose), two craters (the eyes), and a circular fracture pattern (the head),” said HiRISE principal investigator Alfred McEwen. “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? Maybe just grin and bear it.”
We’ll just have to go to Mars and explore this crater ourselves to find out exactly what makes it look like a bear.
We’re sure we’ll use the HiRISE data maps to get our bearings. It would be impossible to embark on such an adventure without such a map, and the rest of the journey would be unbearable.
READ MORE: 25 Pics Of Mars Surface Like You’ve Never Seen It Before
