Several possible studies
Story checked
Astronomers Spotted a 'Bear' on Mars : ScienceAlert (opens in a new tab)
sciencealert.com · 2026-09-13
Short answer
Several possible studiesNo clear answer.
More than one paper fits the article's details, and none fits well enough to single out. Checking claims against the wrong study would be worse than not checking them at all.
Checked against the study summary. The full text wasn't available, so some details couldn't be settled either way.
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The story
Astronomers Spotted a 'Bear' on Mars : ScienceAlert
sciencealert.com · 2026-09-13
The story’s checkable claims.
Read the original story (opens in a new tab)NewsLink checks it
Several studies could be the source of this story.
More than one paper fits the article's details, and none fits well enough to single out. Checking claims against the wrong study would be worse than not checking them at all.
Open claim evidenceSearch result
Several studies could fit.
More than one paper fits the article's details, and none fits well enough to single out. Checking claims against the wrong study would be worse than not checking them at all.
Evidence layer
Claim by claim
What the story asserts. With no source study, there is nothing to check these against.
Reading mode
Scan verdicts. Open evidence only when needed.
Claim 1 of 4Not checkedA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE image taken on 12 December 2022 captured a hill in Mars' southern highlands that looked like an adorable little bear face.View evidenceHide evidence
Not checked
NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.
Claim 2 of 4Not checkedAlfred McEwen explained that the formation is more mundanely a hill with a V-shaped collapse structure as the nose, two craters as the eyes, and a circular fracture pattern as the head.View evidenceHide evidence
Not checked
NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.
Claim 3 of 4Not checkedThe bear-like appearance is attributed to pareidolia, the tendency to perceive faces in random or ambiguous objects.View evidenceHide evidence
Not checked
NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.
Claim 4 of 4Not checkedThe article says a 2024 ESA Trace Gas Orbiter image showed a smiley-shaped chloride salt deposit in Terra Sirenum, and that such salt deposits may mark evaporated shallow ponds or lakes and could be targets for future biosignature searches.View evidenceHide evidence
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NewsLink could not identify one source study, so this claim was not compared against a paper.
Method layer
No single source study was found.
NewsLink still surfaces nearby research so you can inspect the field instead of a single paper.
Nearby research
No exact source, but these papers are close.
PubMed, Europe PMC, Crossref · 15 candidate papers
Correction: Do chimpanzees see a face on Mars? A search for face pareidolia in chimpanzees.
Animal Cognition · 2023 · PubMed, Europe PMC, Crossref
Do chimpanzees see a face on Mars? A search for face pareidolia in chimpanzees
Animal Cognition · 2022 · Europe PMC, Crossref
Do chimpanzees see a face on Mars? A search for face pareidolia in chimpanzees.
Animal Cognition · 2023 · PubMed, Europe PMC
[Pareidolia in Beato de Liébana's illuminated Visigothic codes].
Neurologia (Barcelona, Spain) · 2002 · PubMed
Face Pareidolia is Sensitive to Spectral Power and Orientation Energy
2025 · Crossref
And 10 more candidates considered.