NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Discovers Field of Honeycomb Textures
3 min readNASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Discovers Field of Honeycomb TexturesJet Propulsion LaboratoryJul 29, 2026 Article NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered an expanse of terrain covered in surface features called polygons. Scientists have never seen so many of these features in one place and are unsure how they formed. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS As NASA’s Curiosity rover recently began climbing up a Martian valley nicknamed “Valle Grande,” it sent back images that were a familiar sight to mission scientists: honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures, each one about 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters) across.
- ▪3 min readNASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Discovers Field of Honeycomb TexturesJet Propulsion LaboratoryJul 29, 2026 Article NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered an expanse of terrain covered in surface features called polygons.
- ▪Scientists have never seen so many of these features in one place and are unsure how they formed.
- ▪NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS As NASA’s Curiosity rover recently began climbing up a Martian valley nicknamed “Valle Grande,” it sent back images that were a familiar sight to mission scientists: honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures,
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| Original publisher | NASA |
| Canonical URL | https://www.nasa.gov/missions/mars-science-laboratory/curiosity-rover/nasas-curiosity-mars-rover-discovers-field-of-honeycomb-textures/ |
| Publication time | Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:30:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-07-29T16:06:31.206Z |
| Last seen | 2026-07-29T16:06:31.206Z |
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3 min readNASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Discovers Field of Honeycomb TexturesJet Propulsion LaboratoryJul 29, 2026 Article NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered an expanse of terrain covered in surface features called polygons. Scientists have never seen so many of these features in one place and are unsure how they formed. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS As NASA’s Curiosity rover recently began climbing up a Martian valley nicknamed “Valle Grande,” it sent back images that were a familiar sight to mission scientists: honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures, each one about 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters) across. The mission has spotted small patches of these geometric shapes several times before, but nothing at the scale discovered in Valle Grande.
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