Curiosity rover spots mysterious honeycombs on Mars | Space photo of the day for Aug. 5, 2026

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"We've seen a lot of fascinating landscapes through Curiosity's eyes, but this sea of polygons took our breath away."

A close-up of the polygon fractures discovered by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover highlights their honeycomb-like textures. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover spotted surprising shapes in the Red Planet soil while exploring a large valley.

What is it?

These images were captured on June 19 and 20, 2026, or the 4,930th and 4,931st Martian days of Curiosity's mission. They show honeycomb-like patterns referred to as "polygonal fractures" found in a valley on Mars known as Valle Grande. They measure about 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters) across.

While Curiosity has seen other curious geometric patterns on Mars before, scientists were surprised by this most recent find.

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"We've seen a lot of fascinating landscapes through Curiosity's eyes, but this sea of polygons took our breath away," project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. "We measured their shapes and chemistry carefully and are hopeful there are clues in the data as to how these features formed."

a reddish-brown landscape of soil and rocks covered in slightly raised hexagonal lines of nearly equal size

A panorama taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover showing a large field of hexagonal shapes in the Martian soil. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Why is it incredible?

This field of polygons in Valle Grande extends as far as Curiosity's instruments could see, even around the base of a steep hill scientists named "Miraflores."

a reddish-brown landscape of soil and rocks covered in slightly raised hexagonal lines of nearly equal size

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this sand-capped butte, nicknamed "Miraflores," estimated to be about 20 feet (6 meters) tall, on June 11, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

While mission scientists have theories about how these structures form, it ultimately remains a mystery how they formed.

It's thought that changes in temperatures on Mars could have caused water to squeeze through sediment layers, but scientists will need to collect more data before they can reach a conclusive answer.

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Brett Tingley
Brett Tingley
Managing Editor, Space.com

Brett is curious about emerging aerospace technologies, alternative launch concepts, military space developments and uncrewed aircraft systems. Brett's work has appeared on Scientific American, The War Zone, Popular Science, the History Channel, Science Discovery and more. Brett has degrees from Clemson University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In his free time, Brett enjoys skywatching throughout the dark skies of the Appalachian mountains.