Paddington Bear on Mars? NASA images from the red planet capture the internet's imagination - New York Post

A “doge?” The internet has mixed opinions on an image released by NASA showing what looks like a bear’s face on Mars.

When HiRISE shared the bear photo on Twitter, the internet had its own ideas about what the figure resembles.

What it really is, researchers say, is a hill with a V-shaped collapse structure (the nose), two craters for the eyes and a “circular fracture pattern” that makes up the head.

“The circular fracture pattern might be due to the settling of a deposit over a buried impact crater,” HiRISE researchers say.

According to HiRISE, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter camera “operates in visible wavelengths, the same as human eyes, but with a telescopic lens that produces images at resolutions never before seen in planetary exploration missions.”

“These high-resolution images enable scientists to distinguish 1-meter-size (about 3-foot-size) objects on Mars and to study the morphology (surface structure) in a much more comprehensive manner than ever before,” according to the HiRISE website.