Like a giant drawing on the surface of Mars. The discovery dates back to December 2022, but the US space agency NASA published the picture this Wednesday, January 25.

We get the impression of looking at a nice bear head graphics. A circle delimiting the head, two eyes and a muzzle that appears to rise out of the ground as if it were molded in 3D.

The strange shot has baffled many Internet users since its publication, even though the explanation for such a picture is not due to human presence.

scientific explanation

According to American researchers from the University of Arizona, the picture of this bear comes from several geological elements.

They put forward the thesis that the two eyes are actually two craters, that the snout corresponds to a cratered hill and that the fact that these geological elements are in the middle of a spheroidal fracture – which delimits the head – is definitive. Covered with a lava deposit caused by a buried impact crater.

A snapshot thanks to the Hirise Project

The photo was taken by the HiRISE camera of the satellite sent by NASA, which has been orbiting Mars since 2006, as reported by Le Figaro.

This camera is ultra-precise – the proof in the image – to prepare for the next mission to the Red Planet.