The US space agency NASA shared images monitored by its Curiosity rover, showing geological formations on the surface of Mars that resemble beehives in shape.
NASA's statement, which was published last week on its official website, stated that the Curiosity rover, which finally began climbing a valley on Mars known as Valle Grande, sent images that revealed patterns with a honeycomb-like texture, scientifically known as polygonal cracks, each of which ranges between 4 and 8 centimeters in width.
The agency explained that the mission had previously observed small spots of these geometric formations in various locations, but it had never seen an extension of this size before, as is the case in the Valle Grande region.
The statement added that a 360-degree panorama taken by the spacecraft on June 19 and 20, during the 4930th and 4931st Martian days of the mission, showed that these polygonal shapes extend in all directions to the maximum extent that the spacecraft can observe. It also covers the sides of a small rocky hill known as Miraflores, about 6 meters high, topped with a thick cover of sand.
For his part, Ashwin Vasavada, the scientist in charge of the “Curiosity” project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said: “We have seen many amazing landscapes through the eyes of Curiosity, but this sea of polygonal shapes really amazed us. We carefully measured their shapes and chemical composition, and we hope that the data will reveal clues to how these features were formed.”
NASA indicated that some of these shapes that were previously observed were formed as a result of cracks in the clay after it dried, but planetary scientists do not rule out the existence of other geological processes that contributed to their formation, such as the succession of warm and cold periods or the compression processes that forced water to emerge from the sediments after being buried under the surface of Mars.
According to the agency, these new formations represent one of a series of remarkable discoveries made by Curiosity since landing on Mars on August 5, 2012. In addition to finding sulfur crystals, bright meteorites, and unique geological formations, the rover has found important evidence confirming that ancient Mars possessed the water, chemical elements, and nutrients necessary to support microbial life.
Billions of years ago, lakes and streams spread along the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, also known as Mount Wind, which is about 5,000 meters high. Curiosity has been climbing this mountain since 2014, as part of its mission to study the rock layers that document the environmental history of Mars.
The spacecraft has also previously revealed chemical traces dating back to the planet's watery past, including carbon-based organic molecules believed to be precursors to both RNA and DNA, the two molecules responsible for carrying genetic information in living organisms. Although scientists cannot yet determine whether these molecules arose as a result of biological or geological processes, their discovery strengthens the evidence that ancient Mars had the appropriate chemical environment that could have supported the existence of life.
