{"id":803720,"date":"2026-08-05T17:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T17:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/803720\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T17:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T17:22:12","slug":"curiosity-rover-spots-mysterious-honeycombs-on-mars-photo-of-the-day-for-aug-5-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/803720\/","title":{"rendered":"Curiosity rover spots mysterious honeycombs on Mars photo of the day for Aug. 5, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A close-up of the polygon fractures discovered by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover highlights their honeycomb-like textures. (Image credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS)<\/p>\n

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover<\/a> spotted surprising shapes in the Red Planet soil while exploring a large valley.<\/p>\n

What is it?<\/p>\n

These images were captured on June 19 and 20, 2026, or the 4,930th and 4,931st Martian days of Curiosity’s mission. They show honeycomb-like patterns referred to as “polygonal fractures” found in a valley on Mars<\/a> known as Valle Grande. They measure about 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters) across.<\/p>\n

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While Curiosity has seen other curious geometric patterns on Mars before, scientists were surprised by this most recent find.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen a lot of fascinating landscapes through Curiosity’s eyes, but this sea of polygons took our breath away,” project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement<\/a>. “We measured their shapes and chemistry carefully and are hopeful there are clues in the data as to how these features formed.”<\/p>\n

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A panorama taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover showing a large field of hexagonal shapes in the Martian soil. (Image credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS)Why is it incredible?<\/p>\n

This field of polygons in Valle Grande extends as far as Curiosity’s instruments could see, even around the base of a steep hill scientists named “Miraflores.”<\/p>\n

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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this sand-capped butte, nicknamed “Miraflores,” estimated to be about 20 feet (6 meters) tall, on June 11, 2026. (Image credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS)<\/p>\n

While mission scientists have theories about how these structures form, it ultimately remains a mystery how they formed.<\/p>\n

It’s thought that changes in temperatures on Mars could have caused water to squeeze through sediment layers, but scientists will need to collect more data before they can reach a conclusive answer.<\/p>\n

\"Space\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A close-up of the polygon fractures discovered by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover highlights their honeycomb-like textures. (Image credit:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-803720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}