'It took our breath away' - Mars rover finds strange polygon features in the Red Planet's rusty dirt
NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered extensive polygonal fractures in the Valle Grande region of Mars. Scientists are investigating whether these honeycomb-like features were formed by temperature cycles or sediment compression in the planet's ancient past.
Why it matters
These geological findings provide further clues about the environmental history of Mars and its potential to have supported microbial life.
A NASA rover on Mars has captured an incredible image of many-sided geologic features stretching across the surface of the Red Planet.
The images were captured by the Curiosity rover as it began climbing up a Martian valley known as Valle Grande.
Curiosity mission scientists say they've never seen so many of the polygon features in one place on Mars.
The honeycomb-like features seen by Curiosity on Mars are known as polygonal fractures and each one is about 4–8cm (1.5–3 inches) across.
This is not the first time Curiosity has seen the strange features, but NASA says they've never been seen on Mars before at the scale seen in Valle Grande.
Curiosity captured a 360° panorama on 19 and 20 June 2026 that shows the polygonal fractures in all directions as far as the eye can see.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in