Curiosity rover finds vast honeycomb landscape on Mars

NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered an extensive field of polygonal fractures on Mars. The honeycomb-like patterns were imaged in a valley called Valle Grande during the rover’s climb up Mount Sharp.

The formations, each spanning roughly 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters), cover the ground in all directions and even ascend the slopes of a nearby butte named Miraflores, which rises 20 feet (6 meters) and is topped by a sand layer. Curiosity captured the full extent in a 360-degree panorama on June 19 and 20, 2026, corresponding to sols 4,930 and 4,931 of the mission.

According to Ashwin Vasavada, the mission’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the team was struck by the scale of the polygons. “We’ve seen a lot of fascinating landscapes through Curiosity’s eyes, but this sea of polygons took our breath away,” he said, adding that careful measurements of their shapes and chemistry may reveal how they formed.

Scientists note that similar geometric patterns can arise from different processes. Some previously observed by Curiosity clearly originated as cracks in drying mud, but repeated heating and cooling can also fracture ground into shapes, and compression can force water from buried sediment to create comparable structures. Researchers are now analyzing the new data to pinpoint the cause.

The find adds to a long list of surprises since Curiosity landed on August 5, 2012. Over 14 years, the rover has encountered sulfur crystals, reflective meteorites, and other oddities, while fundamentally reshaping views of ancient Mars. It has shown that the planet once harbored lakes, streams, and chemical ingredients—including carbon-based molecules that may be precursors to RNA and DNA—that could have supported microbial life.

Curiosity has been ascending Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain, since 2014, uncovering evidence of a wetter past in its lower foothills. Whether the organic molecules it detected stem from biological or geological processes remains unclear, but their presence confirms that ancient Mars had the necessary chemistry for life. JPL, managed by Caltech in Pasadena, built Curiosity and leads the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.