NASA’s Mars rover detects Ed Asner’s “smiling” face in an impact crater

I am a big fan of pareidolia, the human tendency to discover familiar things in random shapes. Mars is the wonderland of Paridolia, where gifts from A. A pebble that resembles the leg of a robot to me Weird-looking faces are spotted in the rock formations. Let’s add actor Ed Asner’s picture to that list.

The HiRise Camera Team for NASA’s Mars Exploration Orbiter is based at the University of Arizona. The HiRise Twitter account offers a nice rundown of the Red Planet photos, including This week’s tweet shows a well-preserved impact crater.

You will need to zoom in to get the full effect. An unusual look is that it is an engraving, which is a stereoscopic note that helps highlight terrain in 3D.

“Is it pareidolia, or does anyone else see Ed Asner grinning here?” HiRise Team Books.

First, I said, “What? I don’t see that.” Then I looked more closely. Then I laughed for five minutes in a row, just enough for my stomach muscles to hurt. This either says something about Ed Asner as a Martian, or something about how badly I needed a good laugh lately.

Asner is a seven-time Emmy Award winner known for his work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970s. He has an extensive filmography as an Actor & Voice Actor.

Need some help? This is my annotated evidence for spotting Ed Asner in the impact crater.