Overview
- The rover stitched a 360-degree Mastcam panorama from 340 images taken on June 19–20, 2026, showing polygonal fractures spreading across a valley called Valle Grande.
- This is the largest concentration of such honeycomb-like polygons Curiosity has seen, with individual polygons about 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 cm) across and the pattern wrapping around a sand-capped butte nicknamed Miraflores.
- Mission scientists have measured the polygons' shapes and chemical signatures but have not reached a definitive explanation for their origin.
- Researchers are testing multiple formation hypotheses, including drying mud cracks from past surface water, temperature-driven contraction, and compaction that squeezed water from buried sediments.
- If the patterns formed from wet–dry cycles, the finding would add to Curiosity's earlier evidence that Gale Crater once hosted lakes and streams and help sharpen understanding of Mars's past habitability as data analysis continues.