What Exactly Is This Mysterious “Animal” on Mars?

You’ve heard of the “mand in the Moon,” but what about the “bear on Mars”?

Transcript

00:00You've probably heard the phrase the man in the moon, or the face that many people

00:07say they see when they look up at the giant grey rock in the sky.

00:11In fact, there was even a more convincing one on Mars, discovered decades ago in the

00:15Cydonia region.

00:16That's because human beings are susceptible to an illusion called facial pareidolia, or

00:19when we tend to see faces, when there are two dots in a line that are oriented like

00:23a face.

00:24But now scientists are likely looking for a new science-y sounding word for what I guarantee

00:27you see in this recently discovered crater cluster on Mars.

00:31This is clearly the face of a bear that researchers don't yet have a name for.

00:34High resolution imaging experts say the two eyes are craters, and that they believe the

00:38snout of the bear is a hill with a V-shaped collapse at the top.

00:41So what about the near perfect circle which sort of ties the whole bear face together?

00:44Well, they're not really sure, but this is what High Rise lead investigator Alfred McEwan

00:48had to say about it.

00:49The circular fracture pattern might be due to the settling of a deposit over a buried

00:53impact crater.

00:54Maybe the nose is a volcanic or mud vent, and the deposit could be lava or mud flows.

00:59Maybe just grin and bear it.