it’s a pretty safe bet to assume that there aren’t any real bears living on the Red Planet. However, astronomers, scientists in general, and even ordinary people have always been wondering if there is any life dwelling on Mars. While space rovers didn’t stumble upon any organism so far, there is still a lot of the planet’s surface to explore.
Why not focus our attention on craters instead? That’s what seems to be in the mind of the NASA scientists in charge of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, as one of the craters from our neighboring planet has the same face as a cartoon bear. See for yourself:
HiPOD: A Bear on Mars?
This feature looks a bit like a bear’s face. What is it really?
More: https://t.co/MpLQBg38ur
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona#Mars #science #NASA https://t.co/2WUNquTUZH pic.twitter.com/1k2ZnLcJ5o
— HiRISE: Beautiful Mars (NASA) (@HiRISE) January 25, 2023
Of course, the human brain is naturally programmed to associate various structures with what it may find familiar. Looking at the same crater from a different angle, perhaps any other, won’t make us believe that there is a “bear” looking at us from Mars anymore.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a spacecraft that was launched by NASA in 2005 with the goal of studying the geology, geophysics, and climate of Mars from orbit. The MRO carries a suite of scientific instruments that are used to study the planet’s surface, subsurface, and atmosphere.
One of the main scientific goals of the MRO is to search for evidence of water on Mars, both past and present. The spacecraft’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera is capable of taking detailed images of the Martian surface, allowing scientists to search for signs of ancient river channels, lakes, and other evidence of past water activity.
Next time you’re wondering if the Martians are looking into the depths of space and wondering if there are any aliens out there, you might imagine the “crater bear” doing the same thing.
Now seriously, real aliens could still be there on the Red Planet somewhere, whether we’re talking about microbial life or even complex organisms such as animals on Earth., but scientists still have a lot to discover about Mars.
