Curiosity Mars rover discovery ‘took our breath away’: NASA
NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered a vast field of honeycomb-like polygonal fractures in a Martian valley. Scientists are analyzing the chemistry of these formations to determine if they were created by environmental processes or ancient water activity.
Why it matters
These findings provide further evidence of Mars's watery history and its potential to have supported microbial life in the distant past.
NASA’s Curiosity rover has noticed little patches of “honeycomb-like textures” on Mars several times before, but for a few days in June, it spotted a “sea” of them that stretched as far as the mobile science laboratory could see.
In a press release Wednesday, NASA shared images of the polygonal fractures, or polygons, that the rover captured while it climbed a Martian valley dubbed “Valle Grande” on June 19 and 20.
NASA said the newly discovered polygons, which typically measure out to be about 1.5 to three inches (four to eight centimetres) each, were “nothing at the scale discovered in Valle Grande.”
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