{"id":612262,"date":"2026-07-30T20:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T20:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/612262\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T20:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T20:12:10","slug":"curiosity-photographs-a-sea-of-polygons-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/612262\/","title":{"rendered":"Curiosity Photographs a ‘Sea of Polygons’ on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

While NASA\u2019s Curiosity Mars rover routinely finds interesting-looking rocks, including ones that looked like dragon scales<\/a> just a few months ago, its latest discovery in \u201cValle Grande\u201d shows honeycomb-like rocks at a never-before-seen scale. <\/p>\n

Curiosity captured a 360-degree panorama on June 19 and 20, the 4,930th and 4,931st days of its mission on Mars, showing polygonal fractures across the Red Planet\u2019s surface \u201cas far as the rover can see<\/a>.\u201d As NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) explains, the polygonal shapes even extend around a 20-foot-tall butte, nicknamed \u201cMiraflores.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u2018NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover discovered an expanse of terrain covered in surface features called polygons. Scientists have never seen so many of these features in one place and are unsure how they formed.\u2019 | Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot of fascinating landscapes through Curiosity\u2019s eyes, but this sea of polygons took our breath away,\u201d says Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity mission project scientist from NASA JPL. \u201cWe measured their shapes and chemistry carefully and are hopeful there are clues in the data as to how these features formed.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n

We\u2019ve seen a lot of fascinating landscapes through Curiosity\u2019s eyes, but this sea of polygons took our breath away<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

NASA says there are many different ways that these sorts of honeycomb textures can form, including cycles of warm and cold temperatures that affect how water is forced out of buried sediment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese newly discovered polygons are among the many surprises Curiosity has trundled across since landing on Mars 14 years ago, on Aug. 5, 2012,\u201d NASA writes. \u201cBesides sulfur crystals, shiny meteorites, and other interesting geologic features, the rover has made major discoveries about the ancient Martian environment \u2014 most importantly, that it had the water, chemistry, and nutrients to support microbial life.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u2018NASA\u2019s Curiosity Mars rover captured this sand-capped butte, nicknamed \u201cMiraflores,\u201d estimated to be about 20 feet (6 meters) tall, on June 11, 2026. The surrounding area includes an expanse of terrain covered in surface features called polygons.\u2019 | Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS <\/p>\n

Scientists note that billions of years ago, there were lakes and streams across the lower foothills of Mount Sharp, the three-mile-tall mountain that Curiosity has been steadily climbing for about 12 years. Given that Curiosity\u2019s top speed on favorable terrain is about 0.1 miles per hour, or 1.5 inches per second, it\u2019s easy to imagine how long a mountainous climb has taken. <\/p>\n

While it\u2019s not possible yet to say whether the carbon-based molecules Curiosity has found on Mars, which are believed to be the precursors to RNA and DNA, were caused by biologic or geologic processes, the planet-trotting rover has shown that ancient Mars could have supported life. It\u2019s quite the discovery, although as far as beauty goes, Curiosity\u2019s newest landscape photo is perhaps its most spectacular work yet. <\/p>\n

Image creditsNASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While NASA\u2019s Curiosity Mars rover routinely finds interesting-looking rocks, including ones that looked like dragon scales just a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[40586,134161,18,19,17,1203,1024,135605,34596,133,451],"class_list":["post-612262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-curiosity","tag-curiosityrover","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mars","tag-nasa","tag-redplanet","tag-rover","tag-science","tag-space"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117010756465302867","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}