NASA's Curiosity rover has encountered an extraordinary landscape while climbing through a Martian valley nicknamed "Valle Grande." Images sent back by the rover show the ground covered with honeycomb-like patterns known as polygonal fractures, each measuring about 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters) across.
Curiosity has seen small clusters of similar geometric shapes before, but never anything approaching the scale of the field now visible in Valle Grande.
A Sea of Polygons Across Mars
The full extent of the formations appears in a 360-degree panorama captured on June 19 and 20, during the 4,930th and 4,931st Martian days, or sols, of the mission. The polygons stretch across the terrain in every direction, continuing as far as the rover can see.
The patterns also climb the sides of a nearby butte nicknamed "Miraflores." The formation rises 20 feet (6 meters) above the surrounding landscape and is capped by a thick layer of sand.
