As NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover recently began climbing up a Martian valley nicknamed \u201cValle Grande,\u201d it sent back images that were a familiar sight to mission scientists: honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures, each one about 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters) across. The mission has spotted small patches of these geometric shapes several times before, but nothing at the scale discovered in Valle Grande.<\/p>\n
In a 360-degree panorama that the rover captured on June 19 and 20, the 4,930th and 4,931st Martian days, or sols, of the mission, the polygonal shapes spread in all directions for as far as the rover can see. They even wrap around the sides of a nearby butte nicknamed \u201cMiraflores,\u201d which stands 20 feet (6 meters) tall and is topped with a thick cap of sand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot of fascinating landscapes through Curiosity\u2019s eyes, but this sea of polygons took our breath away,\u201d said the mission\u2019s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. \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
Some of the polygons that the mission has spotted in the past clearly formed as mud cracks<\/a>, though a variety of processes can contribute to their honeycomb textures, including cycles of warm and cold temperatures or compression that squeezed water out of the sediment when the surface was buried.<\/p>\n These newly discovered polygons are among the many surprises Curiosity has trundled across since landing on Mars 14 years ago, on Aug. 5, 2012. Besides sulfur crystals<\/a>, shiny meteorites<\/a>, and other interesting geologic features<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n Billions of years ago, lakes and streams dappled the lower foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that Curiosity has been ascending since 2014. The rover has previously uncovered chemistry left over from Mars\u2019 watery history, including carbon-based molecules believed to be precursors to RNA and DNA<\/a>, two nucleic acids that carry genetic information. Scientists have no way of knowing whether these organic molecules were created by biologic or geologic processes \u2014 either path is possible \u2014 but their discovery reconfirmed that ancient Mars had the right chemistry to support life.<\/p>\n Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, JPL built Curiosity and leads the mission on behalf of NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of the agency\u2019s Mars Exploration Program portfolio.<\/p>\n To learn more about Curiosity, visit:<\/p>\n https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/msl-curiosity<\/a><\/p>\n News Media Contacts<\/p>\n Andrew Good \u00a0<\/p>\n Karen Fox \/ Alana Johnson 2026-051<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover recently began climbing up a Martian valley nicknamed \u201cValle Grande,\u201d it sent back images…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[25269,9270,395,200355,10933,90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-717570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-curiosity-rover","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-mars","tag-mars-exploration-program","tag-radioisotope-power-systems-rps","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n
NASA Headquarters, Washington
240-285-5155 \/ 202-672-4780
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov<\/a> \/ alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n