Bizarre polygons appear on the surface of Mars, or interesting polygons that connect a certain number of points. Is it some alien structure, or signs of spring or summer? That there would be seasons on Mars? Polygons look like the red planet is blooming, as shown in a new image from the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HIRISE) orbiting camera.
The University of Arizona in Tucson operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Thanks to this project, we can also observe spring on Mars.
The HIRISE camera is located aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which began its mission in 2006. The orbiter hovers about 250 to 216 km above the planet and manages to capture some very unusual images. For example, in 2018, the orbiter spotted a formation of rocks and craters that looked like a bug, and a few weeks ago, it was images taken thanks to another camera that captured finger-shaped rocks, or images from the Valles Marineris probe.
NASA has revealed stunning images of a crater on Mars. It looks like a giant bloodshot eye
Natalia Borůvková
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Martian surface responds to ‘seasons’?
The surface of Mars is made of completely different substances than the Earth’s surface. Its most important components are water and dry ice, which form at high latitudes on mountainous Mars. At the same time, it is the water ice frozen in the soil that divides the soil into polygons that create strange shapes that right now look like the surface of Mars is blooming.
Ice flowers on Mars
The picture, taken at the end of March, shows strange flower patterns. Erosion of the channels forming the boundaries of the polygons by dry ice sublimating in the spring gives them many curves. A beautiful mosaic of white zigzags appears on the surface of Mars, which crack across the Martian soil at high latitudes. The edges of these polygons crack and flake in the spring as the surface ice changes from solid to gas – a process known as sublimation. Spring activity is evident when vents form in the layer of translucent dry ice covering the surface through which gas escapes.
Sometimes fans of black and blue mist spread between individual cracks. It is this zigzag and colored mists that are important signs of a kind of Martian spring. Although, of course, there are no four seasons in our sense of the word, hidden reservoirs of underground ice touch the dry Martian surface, creating strange patterns.
These are being studied by scientists from the University of Arizona, which manages the HIRISE mission.
The fans look like a flower garden thanks to the wind
Vents through which gas escapes are the reason for the planet’s “bloom”. The gas itself carries with it fine particles of material from the surface. These particles then further break down and erode the channels. Their particles then fall to the surface in dark fan-shaped deposits, or sink into dry ice. In the places where the fans originally settled, these particles then leave bright traces. The vent itself then closes, but only momentarily to open again.
Watch the video here:
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Source: Youtube
Thanks to this, we can then see two or more fans coming from the same place. However, because the wind blows on Mars, according to the changes in the wind direction, even these fans are turned and oriented differently, so they look like tiny flowers. We can look at them thanks to an image from March 30, 2022, which reveals this mosaic of white zigzags. Both fans and polygons can persist for many years, slowly deforming the Martian landscape as the ice expands and contracts seasonally.
“Both water and dry ice play a significant role in shaping the surface of Mars at high latitudes,” the researchers wrote. “Water ice frozen in the soil divides the soil into polygons.”
We will be surprised what other pictures we will be able to see.
Resources:
www.livescience.com, mars.nasa.gov, eminetra.com, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygon
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