Curiosity Closes In on Mars’ Large Net-Like Ridges

Certainly one of Mars’ most perplexing geological mysteries, formations that like monumental spiderwebs unfold out throughout the panorama, can now be seen up shut in the latest set of images taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover. It has been touring by an attention-grabbing part of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater for the previous six months. It’s made up of low, intersecting ridges which can be about three to 6 toes excessive, with sandy depressions scooped out between them.

When considered from orbit, the sample offers the distinct look of monumental spiderwebs spanning miles throughout the Martian panorama, however up shut, the story turns into rather more intriguing. These “boxwork” constructions present a historical past of water that has continued for for much longer than most fashions had predicted. Utilizing its Mastcam, the rover was capable of take some extremely vivid panoramas and close-ups of the ridges. One image dated September 26, 2025, gives an extremely clear view of the community of elevated traces and depressions. The workforce was somewhat bowled over when Curiosity found pea-sized nodules scattered all through the ridge partitions and within the hollows, that are proof of earlier water exercise.

The consultants imagine that this explains the boxwork: way back, groundwater handed by bedrock fissures, depositing minerals that created sturdy ridges specifically areas. The depressions that give the looks of an online have been left behind because the wind labored on the softer rock. The black traces that crisscrossed the formations have been already very apparent from orbital images; a concept from again in 2014 proposed that these have been central cracks the place the minerals had congregated. That concept is strengthened by Curiosity’s cautious examination, which revealed that the traces are in reality fractures.

The factor that really grabs your consideration is that the boxwork is positioned fairly excessive on Mount Sharp, indicating that the traditional groundwater desk should have reached pretty excessive ranges. This means that water was current on Mars for a far longer time frame earlier than the planet dried up and froze. Microbial life would have had an extended interval of livable situations if it had ever existed. The investigation’s mission scientist, Dr. Tina Seeger of Rice College, cited this elevation and mentioned that groundwater excessive sufficient to create these traits signifies that life-supporting situations could have existed for a for much longer than the orbital information alone would point out.