Researchers capture image on Mars that looks like a bear

(Gray News/TMX) – Paddington, is that you?

An image captured by the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, appears to show the image of a bear’s face on the surface of Mars.

Researchers at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, which manages HiRISE, said the large, circular fracture pattern that forms the outline of a bear’s head “might be due to the settling of a deposit over a buried impact crater.”

In the center, the “nose” is formed by a hill with a V-shaped collapse, while the “eyes” are two smaller craters.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been orbiting the planet for nearly 17 years. According to the University of Arizona, the HiRISE instrument remains the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet.