Astronomers Spotted a 'Bear' on Mars
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured an image of a Martian hill that resembles a bear's face. Scientists explain this as pareidolia, a psychological phenomenon where humans perceive familiar patterns in random data.
Why it matters
It highlights how human cognitive biases influence our interpretation of scientific data and space exploration imagery.
Add ScienceAlert on Google (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona) On 12 December 2022 , an orbiter traveling 251 kilometers (156 miles) above the southern highlands of Mars photographed a hill.
It should have been an unremarkable shot – one of tens of thousands NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE camera has captured of the Martian surface since 2006.
Instead, something seemed to be looking back.
Between them, a pale ridge tapered down like an adorable snout. The whole thing was ringed by a near-perfect circular crack, giving it the outline of a head.
If you look at it together, it's hard to deny that it looks – almost comically – like an adorable little bear.
But, alas, there's a more mundane explanation.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in