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Scientists taking new photos of Mars have found what looks like a grizzly bear’s face ‘carved’ into the rock face.
NASA scientists were taking images of the Red Planet 251km above ground level via a spacecraft called the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, when they made the bear face discovery.
The image showed a large circular outline in the rock face, with two smaller dents creating eyes, and a much larger crater which formed a muzzle to create the illusion of a grizzly bear’s face.
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NASA took to Twitter to share its findings and explain what Mar’s bear face actually was as well as what might have caused such a coincidental formation.
It said: “This feature looks a bit like a bear’s face. What is it really?”
“There’s a hill with a V-shaped collapse structure (the nose), two craters (the eyes), and a circular fracture pattern (the head).
“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”
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However, some Twitter users felt the image looked more like a bird than a bear due to lack of ears.
“There are a few people who thought it resembled a chicken,” admitted NASA in response to one user who posted a photo of an angry bird underneath the announcement.
The scientists were only able to capture the planet’s bear face due to a special camera attached to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera is the most powerful to ever be deployed on another planet.
The distance between Earth and Mars varies depending on orbits, but at a minimum the planets are 33.9 million miles apart, according to NASA.
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