CURIOSITY ROVER DISCOVERS VAST HONEYCOMB PATTERN FIELD ON MARS

NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered a large field of honeycomb-like polygonal fractures on Mars whilst climbing a valley nicknamed Valle Grande. The polygons, each measuring between 1.3 to 3 inches in diameter, spread across the terrain as far as the rover's cameras can see and wrap around a nearby butte named Miraflores. The rover captured images of the feature on 19 and 20 June during the 4,930th and 4,931st Martian days of its mission. Ashwin Vasavada, the mission's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, stated that the scale of the discovery was unprecedented for the mission.

Curiosity has previously identified smaller patches of polygonal shapes, but scientists have never encountered so many in one location before. The origin of these polygons remains uncertain, though researchers have identified several potential formation mechanisms. Some polygons observed in past missions clearly formed as cracks in ancient mud, whilst others may have resulted from cycles of temperature change or compression that forced water from sediment when the surface was buried. William Rapin of France's Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie previously suggested that such wet-dry cycles represented evidence of Mars's ancient climate supporting conditions potentially conducive to life.

The discovery adds to a series of significant findings by Curiosity since its landing on Mars on 5 August 2012. The rover has identified evidence that ancient Mars possessed water, chemistry and nutrients potentially capable of supporting microbial life. Curiosity has ascended Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall mountain surrounded by ancient lakes and streams billions of years ago, since 2014. Mission scientists hope that detailed analysis of the polygons' shapes and chemical composition will reveal how these features formed.