Recent discoveries on Planet Mars have brought a fascinating geological phenomenon to the fore. A few tens of meters below the Martian equator is a large pattern of polygons, similar to that found near Earth's cold poles. These geological formations are not only impressive in their size, but also in their scientific significance.
Each Martian polygon measures about 70 meters in diameter, half the length of a football field, and is bounded by layers of ice and mud about 30 meters wide. These structures are thought to be somewhere between 2 billion and 3.5 billion years old. The data that led to this discovery came from the Chinese rover Zhurong, which explored the region called Utopia Planitia, located north of the Martian equator.
Although the Zhurong rover only traveled a little over a kilometer to the southern region of Mars in a year, its radar detected a continuous pattern of 15 buried polygons. This suggests the possibility of more such structures on the red planet, says Lei Zhang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Groundbreaking Discoveries on Mars: Underground Polygons Reveal History of Ancient Waters
On Earth, similar patterns of polygons are known only in Greenland, Iceland and Antarctica, where drastic drops in temperature caused by seasonal changes contract and fracture the soil. Zhang noted that these Martian polygons are much larger than any such structures found on Earth, suggesting that Mars hosted water and a life-friendly climate several billion years ago.
There is an unconfirmed theory that suggests that Mars once had a much greater tilt on its axis than it does today – up to forty degrees or more. This could explain why tropical regions on Mars were cold enough to cause cracks similar to those near Earth's frozen poles.
William Rapin, a researcher at the Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology in Paris, he noticed that the discovery of these buried polygons is "an interesting discovery" and could help to understand critical periods on Mars that could have been hospitable to life. Rapin was part of a team that recently discovered similar patterns of mud cracks on the Martian surface near Gale Crater, explored by NASA's Curiosity rover.
The discovery of these underground polygons on Mars not only adds a new piece to the puzzle of the planet's history, but also gives us valuable clues about possible climate change and the presence of water in its past. This information helps us better understand the potential for life on other planets and the cosmic history of our solar system.
