NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds Stunning Honeycomb Patterns On Mars
NASA’s Curiosity rover has uncovered an extraordinary, sea-like expanse of geometric honeycomb patterns on Mars, providing novel evidence of how liquid water might have shaped the planet eons ago.
Imaged inside the Valle Grande Martian valley, Curiosity's findings showcases small polygonal fractures tightly packed across the bedrock. Spanning between 1.5 and 3 inches in diameter apiece, the geometric cells form a continuous, net-like lattice surrounding a 20-foot-tall, sand-capped rock tower named Miraflores. Mission scientists have documented similar mud-crack formations elsewhere along Curiosity's route, but the sheer density and sprawling coverage of this particular field surprised researchers, marking the highest concentration of polygonal fractures ever recorded on the Red Planet.
Curiosity captured the scene while navigating the lower reaches of Mount Sharp, a three-mile-tall peak located inside Gale Crater. Roughly 3.5 billion years ago, the mountain’s foothills were fed by active stream networks that deposited mud and sediment into a...
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