Surface size 2000m … created by landslides, etc.
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A picture reminiscent of a bear’s face was matched with a picture of the surface of Mars recently released by researchers at the University of Arizona in the US. The eye appears to have been formed by the formation of a crater, and the nose by the collapse of the topography of the face. University of Arizona, courtesy of NASA
An imaginary view of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which NASA has been operating in Mars orbit since 2006. Courtesy of NASA
A cute bear-faced landmass has been discovered on Mars, the fourth planet of the solar system and Earth’s celestial neighbor, drawing the attention of the scientific community.
The American science journal Space.com reported on the 30th (local time) that researchers at the University of Arizona, tasked with exploring the surface of Mars with the artificial satellite ‘Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)’, discovered a topography that looking like a bear’s face drawn from the front, and which has been in the public eye recently.
This photo was taken on the 12th of last month by the MRO high-resolution camera launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 251 km above Mars. In the face of the bear that was photographed, the small eyes, the cute nose, and the slightly open mouth are clearly visible. The whole face has a round shape.
A researcher at the University of Arizona explained via the official social network service (SNS) that “the V-shaped nose appears to have been created by the collapse of the topography,” and that “the eye was created by two craters.” The researchers estimated that the circular line that formed the outline of the bear’s face was left over from the accumulation of sediment in the crater. The diameter of the bear’s face reaches 2000 m.
MRO’s high-resolution camera, which this time captured the topography of the bear’s face, has the best shooting performance among cameras sent to other planets. MRO entered Mars orbit in 2006 and went on an observation mission.
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A view of ‘Inmyeonam’ taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in 2007. The thumbnail is Inmyeonam Rock taken by Viking 1 in 1976. Courtesy of NASA
In fact, this is not the first time that land that stimulates the human imagination has been discovered on Mars. Space.com analyzed that this is due to a psychological phenomenon called ‘Pareidolia’.
Pareidolia is a process where the human brain assigns meaning to shapes or patterns that have no particular meaning and removes familiar shapes. A representative example is seeing a person with a scary expression or a demon’s face in the smoke rising from the site of a fire.
A similar thing happened on Mars in 1976. It’s ‘inmyeonam’. Inmyeonam is a large rock discovered by the Viking 1, a probe sent by NASA to Mars at the time, during ground photography, and it resembles a human face.
The forehead, eyes, nose and mouth are clear, and the outline of the rather long face is also visible. Humans also built huge structures in the days when they developed ancient civilizations. Because of this, speculation was mixed with expectations that there was once a thriving ancient civilization on Mars.
However, since then, such claims have been resolved due to probes that went to Mars with cameras with better shooting performance. The MRO, who took pictures of the topography in the form of a bear’s face this time, also took pictures of the human face in 2007, and it was confirmed that it was not a human face, but an ordinary boulder.
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