{"id":7308,"date":"2023-02-01T16:07:54","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T16:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/?p=7308"},"modified":"2023-02-01T16:07:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T16:07:54","slug":"mars-crater-bear-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/?p=7308","title":{"rendered":"Astonishing Mars formation looks like a bear"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

At Mashable, we celebrate bears<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And although there are no bears on Mars<\/a> \u2014 yet wee microbes may have once thrived on the Red Planet eons ago<\/a> \u2014 we will celebrate a Martian feature that looks like a bear. Mars is teeming with fascinating craters<\/a>, so it’s only natural that one of them resembles one of the most persevering<\/a>, surprising<\/a>, and downright impressive<\/a> known critters in the galaxy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A NASA<\/a> satellite orbiting Mars, called the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter<\/a>, has a powerful camera (called the High Resolution Imaging Experiment, or HIRISE) that captures detailed views of the Martian surface. It recently found this bear-like area. <\/p>\n

“This feature looks a bit like a bear\u2019s face,” wrote Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona<\/a>, which operates the HIRISE camera. “What is it really?” <\/p>\n

\n SEE ALSO:<\/span>
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\n Life below Martian surface is more plausible than ever, scientists find
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\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n

He continues:<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s 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?”<\/p>\n

Couldn’t agree more. <\/p>\n

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\n \"A<\/p><\/div>\n
\n <\/span>
\n Credit: NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ University of Arizona<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Down on Mars, NASA is currently scouring the planet for hints of past life \u2014 if it ever existed, that is. After all, water once flourished<\/a> on the now dry, freezing, and harsh planet. <\/p>\n

Specifically, the space agency’s car-sized Perseverance rover<\/a> is exploring the dried-up delta in Mars’ Jezero Crater, a place planetary scientists believe once hosted a lake. “This delta is one of the best locations on Mars for the rover to look for signs of past microscopic life,” NASA said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indeed, planetary scientists might not ever spot signs of past life on the Red Planet’s surface (they might need to look for microbes that could be alive and well underground<\/a>), but one thing is assured: On a world millions of miles away, there is a geologic feature that looks like an excellent representative of Earth. Thank you, Martian bear. <\/p>\n

This story was updated with more information about the bear-like Martian formation. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Mashable, we celebrate bears. And although there are no bears on Mars \u2014 yet wee microbes may have once thrived on the Red Planet eons ago \u2014 we will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7309,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gustavopineda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/images-1.fill_.size_2000x1954.v1674770304.jpg?fit=1999%2C1954&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}