{"id":835668,"date":"2026-07-30T10:23:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835668\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T10:23:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:23:20","slug":"it-took-our-breath-away-mars-rover-finds-strange-polygon-features-in-the-red-planets-rusty-dirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835668\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It took our breath away’ \u2013 Mars rover finds strange polygon features in the Red Planet’s rusty dirt"},"content":{"rendered":"

A NASA rover on Mars has captured an incredible image of many-sided geologic features stretching across the surface of the Red Planet.<\/p>\n

The images were captured by the Curiosity rover<\/a> as it began climbing up a Martian valley known as Valle Grande.<\/p>\n

Curiosity mission scientists say they’ve never seen so many of the polygon features in one place on Mars.<\/p>\n

\"ImageImage of Mars captured by NASA’s Psyche spacecraft during a flyby in May 2026. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU<\/p>\n

What are these strange features on Mars?
\n\"TheThe honeycomb textures of polygon fractures seen on the surface of Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/p>\n

The honeycomb-like features seen by Curiosity on Mars are known as polygonal fractures and each one is about 4\u20138cm (1.5\u20133 inches) across.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Curiosity captured a 360\u00b0 panorama on 19 and 20 June 2026 that shows the polygonal fractures in all directions as far as the eye can see.<\/p>\n

\"AA view of Mars seen by NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover, revealing a vast swathe of polygon-shaped surface features. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/p>\n

They’ve also been seen around the sides of a 6m (20 feet) tall geological feature known as a ‘butte’, that’s nicknamed ‘Miraflores’.<\/p>\n

Planetary scientists say some of the polygons seen by Curiosity in the past formed as mud cracks, but they aren’t exactly sure what caused them.<\/p>\n

They say a variety of processes could have produced the honeycomb textures.<\/p>\n

These include cycles of hot and cold temperatures on the Red Planet or compression squeezing water out of Martian sediment when the surface was buried.<\/p>\n

\"AA sand-capped butte nicknamed Miraflores seen on the surface of Mars by the Curiosity rover. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve seen a lot of fascinating landscapes through Curiosity\u2019s eyes, but this sea of polygons took our breath away,” says Curiosity mission project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<\/p>\n

“We measured their shapes and chemistry carefully and are hopeful there are clues in the data as to how these features formed.”<\/p>\n

\"AA selfie captured by NASA\u2019s Curiosity Mars rover on 25 October 2020. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS
\nThe search for water and signs of life<\/p>\n

Throughout its mission on Mars, the Curiosity rover has found sulphur crystals, meteorites and a variety of geological features.<\/p>\n

It’s also made discoveries about what Mars was like in its ancient history, including that it was much wetter and hosted the chemistry and nutrients to support microbial life.<\/p>\n

The rover has found the building blocks of life on Mars<\/a>, including carbon-based molecules thought to be precursors to RNA and DNA.<\/p>\n

These organic molecules may have been created by either biologic or geologic processes, but they nevertheless show that ancient Mars had the right chemical conditions to support life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A NASA rover on Mars has captured an incredible image of many-sided geologic features stretching across the surface…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-835668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}