NASA’s Curiosity rover found a ‘sea of polygons’ on Mars

ScienceCloseSciencePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ScienceNewsCloseNewsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All NewsSpaceCloseSpacePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All SpaceNASA’s Curiosity rover found a ‘sea of polygons’ on MarsNASA says this is the largest area of the honeycomb-textured terrain Curiosity has found so far.NASA says this is the largest area of the honeycomb-textured terrain Curiosity has found so far.by Stevie BonifieldCloseStevie BonifieldNews WriterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Stevie BonifieldJul 30, 2026, 5:20 PM UTCLinkShareGiftImage: NASAStevie BonifieldCloseStevie BonifieldPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Stevie Bonifield is a news writer covering all things consumer tech. Stevie started out at Laptop Mag writing news and reviews on hardware, gaming, and AI.The latest discovery from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is a field of honeycomb-shaped polygons covering a Martian valley called Valle Grande. As Gizmodo reports, Curiosity has snapped pictures of the unusual terrain texture before, called polygonal fractures, each about 1.5 to 3 inches wide, but NASA says it’s previously only found them in small patches, “nothing on the scale discovered in Valle Grande.”Curiosity captured a 360-degree panorama of the “sea of polygons” on June 19th and 20th (Martian sols 4,930 and 4,931) that shows the texture spreading out in all directions. Project scientist Ashwin Vasavada says the Curiosity team “measured their shapes and chemistry carefully and are hopeful there are clues in the data as to how these features formed.”NASA says billions of years ago, “lakes and streams dappled the lower foothills of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that Curiosity has been ascending since 2014.” This terrain could also indicate there was once water in Valle Grande, based on previous polygon patches:Some of the polygons that the mission has spotted in the past clearly formed as mud cracks, though a variety of processes can contribute to their honeycomb textures, including cycles of warm and cold temperatures or compression that squeezed water out of the sediment when the surface was buried.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Stevie BonifieldCloseStevie BonifieldNews WriterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Stevie BonifieldNASACloseNASAPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All NASANewsCloseNewsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All NewsScienceCloseSciencePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ScienceSpaceCloseSpacePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All SpaceMost PopularMost PopularThe US government just banned RoombasWhat’s the catch with the Apple Upgrade program?Microsoft confirms Copilot ‘super app’ coming this yearPixel 11 Pro Fold design leaks ahead of Google launch eventNASA’s Curiosity rover found a ‘sea of polygons’ on MarsThe Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Advertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native ad