Curiosity rover spots ancient sea of Martian polygons
- Recently, Curiosity discovered a vast field of polygonal fractures in Mars' Valle Grande region, a landscape scientists describe as a "sea of polygons" never before seen on such an expansive scale.
- Researchers believe these structures formed as ancient mud cracks, where heating and cooling cycles squeezed water from sediment, creating the distinct honeycomb patterns throughout the valley.
- Measuring around 4 to 8 centimeters across, the fractures wrap around a 20-foot-tall sand-topped butte nicknamed Miraflores, showcasing geological diversity Curiosity is exploring.
- While investigating these geological features, Curiosity continues monitoring extensive wheel damage documented on Sol 4963, though a NASA paper explains individual wheels can absorb significant damage.
- Evidence from Gale Crater documents regular wet-dry cycles that scientists believe may have been essential for the molecular evolution required to support ancient microbial life.
14 Articles
14 Articles
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captures images of ‘sea of polygons’ with honeycomb textures
NASA’s Curiosity rover has noticed little patches of “honeycomb-like textures” on Mars several times before, but for a few days in June, it spotted a “sea” of them that stretched as far as the mobile science laboratory could see.
NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered on Mars an extensive field of small polygonal structures that cover the terrain with a texture similar to that of a comb. The shapes extend in all directions throughout the landscape that the vehicle can observe and surround even a nearby hill six meters high known as Miraflores. The find is located in Valle Grande, a Martian valley through which Curiosity has begun to ascend during its exploration of Mount …
Perseverance's Mars sample tubes were built to be among the cleanest objects humans have made, because their job is to preserve ancient Martian chemistry — and one untreated fingerprint would have exceeded the entire organic contamination allowance by roughly 300 times.
The cleanliness requirement for a Perseverance sample tube can be expressed in a number small enough to be almost meaningless at first glance: 150 nanograms. That was the upper limit NASA set for the total mass of Earth-derived organic compounds allowed in a collected sample. For a narrower group of compounds considered especially relevant to the chemistry of life, the limit fell to 15 nanograms. An average thumbprint carries about 45,000 nanogr…
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