Curiosity Images a ‘Sea of Polygons’ on Mars

While NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover routinely finds interesting-looking rocks, together with ones that seemed like dragon scales just some months in the past, its newest discovery in “Valle Grande” exhibits honeycomb-like rocks at a never-before-seen scale.

Curiosity captured a 360-degree panorama on June 19 and 20, the 4,930th and 4,931st days of its mission on Mars, displaying polygonal fractures throughout the Red Planet’s floor “as far as the rover can see.” As NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) explains, the polygonal shapes even prolong round a 20-foot-tall butte, nicknamed “Miraflores.”

“We’ve seen a lot of fascinating landscapes through Curiosity’s eyes, but this sea of polygons took our breath away,” says Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity mission mission scientist from NASA JPL. “We measured their shapes and chemistry carefully and are hopeful there are clues in the data as to how these features formed.”

NASA says there are numerous completely different ways in which these kinds of honeycomb textures can type, together with cycles of heat and chilly temperatures that have an effect on how water is compelled out of buried sediment.

“These newly discovered polygons are among the many surprises Curiosity has trundled across since landing on Mars 14 years ago, on Aug. 5, 2012,” NASA writes. “Besides sulfur crystals, shiny meteorites, and other interesting geologic features, the rover has made major discoveries about the ancient Martian environment — most importantly, that it had the water, chemistry, and nutrients to support microbial life.”

Scientists word that billions of years in the past, there have been lakes and streams throughout the decrease foothills of Mount Sharp, the three-mile-tall mountain that Curiosity has been steadily climbing for about 12 years. Given that Curiosity’s high pace on favorable terrain is about 0.1 miles per hour, or 1.5 inches per second, it’s simple to think about how lengthy a mountainous climb has taken.

While it’s not doable but to say whether or not the carbon-based molecules Curiosity has discovered on Mars, that are believed to be the precursors to RNA and DNA, have been brought on by biologic or geologic processes, the planet-trotting rover has proven that historical Mars may have supported life. It’s fairly the invention, though so far as magnificence goes, Curiosity’s latest panorama photograph is maybe its most spectacular work but.

Image creditNASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS