It’s springtime on Mars and the mysterious polygons are in bloom, a new image from the orbiting High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HIRISE) camera shows.
Recorded on March 30, 2022, the image reveals a patchwork of white zig-zags cracking across the Martian soil at high latitudes, with occasional sprays of black and blue mist fanning out between them. The zig-zags and colorful sprays are signature features of Martian spring, when hidden reservoirs of subterranean ice butt up against the dry Martian surface, researchers at the University of Arizona — which manages the HIRISE mission — wrote in a statement on Monday (June 20).
“Both water and dry ice have a major role in sculpting Mars’ surface at high latitudes,” the researchers wrote. “Water ice frozen in the soil splits the ground into polygons.”
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