Teddy bear on Mars
A playful picture of a teddy bear on Mars has been making the rounds on social media. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft has been orbiting Mars for 16 years, offering insights into Martian terrain and generally charming pics, too. On January 25, 2023, the College of Arizona featured this picture that MRO took on December 12, 2022. It described the options that create the look of the teddy bear:
There’s a hill with a V-shaped collapse construction (the nostril), two craters (the eyes), and a round fracture sample (the pinnacle). The round fracture sample could be because of the settling of a deposit over a buried impression crater. Perhaps the nostril is a volcanic or mud vent and the deposit may very well be lava or mud flows?
Different faces on Mars
Seeing faces on Mars or the moon shouldn’t be new. Our brains need to make sense out of randomness, a phenomenon referred to as pareidolia. That’s why we generally discuss of the person within the moon.
Viking 1 captured a picture in 1976 that got here to be referred to as the Face on Mars on the purple planet’s Cydonia area. Mars International Surveyor took a greater have a look at this area on Mars in 2001. The up to date picture of this raised area of Martian panorama demystified the legend. You possibly can learn extra in regards to the rationalization for the Face on Mars at NASA.
Backside line: The HiRISE digicam on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a picture of a teddy bear on Mars that’s sweeping social media.
