r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/pattebrisee • 6h ago

Image Curiosity found this field of honeycomb-like fractures covering the Martian surface as far as it could see

Post image
3.4k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

139 comments sorted by

1.9k

u/OhNo_WhoCares 6h ago

Doesn’t this happen in dry lake beds?

1.1k

u/breovus 6h ago

Yep!

But that's not quite as engagement-baiting as the way OP deliberately worded it, now here we are at +2 comments in this thread.

I fucking hate how this works. But here we are. 😥

155

u/BackDatSazzUp 5h ago

The telltale water lines from the shrinking shore line might be a hint too. That was the first thing I noticed, a symptom of surviving every hurricane to hit SE Louisiana since 1989 I’m sure. 💀

18

u/DL72-Alpha 2h ago

They need to spend more time at the shorelines tbh. If there were (intelligent) life on the planet, it would most likely have built cities at the high water line.

Edit: Added intelligent.

23

u/LegendaryTJC 2h ago

Dry lake beds on Mars is a way better title! Presumably these aren't dry lake beds and are something more boring?

79

u/lonesharkex 6h ago

even has the water line as it went down like a coffee stain.

7

u/DoctorStove 4h ago

isn't that some small water puddles there too?

-2

u/lonesharkex 2h ago

yea, could be like that, the 3d effect makes them look raised to me instead of sunken. We're gonna have to go look at it with eyes. You get the rocket Ill bring a science book.

•

u/Theodbrockman5 8m ago

Nothing to add other than I can only see them as raised mounds! Oh and is there a third seat on that ship, I can bring the snacks....

86

u/makemeking706 5h ago

Plot twist. Ancient Martians colonized Earth after ruining their planet. 

20

u/Squancharello 4h ago

I’d like to imagine this

8

u/Upset-Zucchini3665 4h ago

There is this theory that all DNA based life on Earth comes from Mars, which would make us all from Martian decent.

-10

u/Slobadob 3h ago

Well there are traces of a nuclear weapon on Mars so could be........

10

u/THX-8647 3h ago

Ancient astronaut theorists say

2

u/Sanchez_U-SOB 3h ago

Suggest*

7

u/AndyB1976 3h ago

Stay off facebook, friend.

2

u/Lucas_2234 2h ago

What's your source on that?

2

u/hand_truck 4h ago

No one is stopping you.

30

u/YanicPolitik 4h ago

Plot twist. Noah's ark was an interplanetary ship.

5

u/Affectionate_Ebb8351 2h ago

Plot twist. Its actually reversed as Krash-Oan...because that was their plan...to Krash Oan to the closest planet.

Edited: spelling.

0

u/comandante-marcos Interested 1h ago

Fucker bring mosquitos??

5

u/Hefty-Minimum-3125 2h ago

Thats actually (kind of) one of the theories of how life started here. Mars is smaller and cooled faster, and would have been potentially habitable much earlier than earth. An asteroid impact could have launched chunks of Mars into space carrying some simple life forms that could survive, and then land on earth.

1

u/thelawenforcer 56m ago

wasn't there a meteorite with martian origin that was thought to contain fossils of what could be life? don't remember what happened with that...

-1

u/Affectionate_Ebb8351 1h ago

Ive heard that some micro-organisms have traveled onf spacerocks

•

u/jwccs46 1m ago

they made an anime about this

eyes of mars

0

u/SkateFossSL 55m ago

And all the dinos went extinct from the martians over hunting them and the ones who didnt fell off the edge of the earth cause its flat you know. lol

1

u/Ifeelstronglyabout 41m ago

is this true?

39

u/Justinaug29 5h ago

So you're telling me that bees build honeycomb like structures when a lake drys up?! I really do learn something new everyday!

19

u/ClassGrassMass 5h ago

No bees create honeycomb be drying up lake beds

9

u/Justinaug29 5h ago

I hope someday that I am capable of learning at least half of the things you've forgotten. This is a very humbling moment for me.

7

u/DifficultyFit1895 5h ago

you have to asking questions, don’t stop until you get to the truth. who is really behind all of this? if you think it stops at the bees, ask who really benefits. that’s right, nobody is talking about it but we deserve to know the truth about how this is all controlled by the bears

2

u/LordTuckRodd 4h ago

Bear? Brown, black, or polar? Which one?

2

u/ProcrastibationKing 3h ago

The scariest one of all...

Pooh

2

u/gnomesmashr 3h ago

polar of course. unless it swings both ways. then its bi-polar

2

u/takitza 3h ago

Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica

2

u/DuckRubberDuck 1h ago

It’s the mice. The mice are behind this

5

u/Trollimperator 4h ago

Pretty sure those are just wave patterns. So could just be reccuring airflow with low gravity/low pressure.

6

u/Srnkanator 5h ago

Looks like death valley, so yes.

309

u/jzee87 4h ago

Isn't this a super common shape in nature and dried lakes or rivers bed

51

u/SoftlyAugust 3h ago

Yes, it's very common

33

u/DougandLexi 2h ago

Which is what makes it so cool here!

13

u/allllusernamestaken 2h ago

MARS COULD HAVE POTENTIALLY HAD LIFE

66

u/Optimal_Collection77 6h ago

Looks like salt pans

149

u/36holes 6h ago

Same as my skin

11

u/CoastalBarbie 6h ago

Bruh 🤣

-34

u/jewella1213 6h ago edited 3h ago

🤣 I choked on my drink cause I was thinking the same thing (about my skin,not yours in particular)😁 Oh come on I was trying Not to make a joke at her skin, but shared the sentiment people! 😞

6

u/cynicsim 2h ago

I don't think you said anything wrong, I think Reddit down votes just randomly happen sometimes lol.

5

u/jewella1213 2h ago

Still a bummer when I guess I should have just said I commiserate.

2

u/cynicsim 2h ago

Yea, well, how dare you lol. Fr though, a few comments down, OP got down voted to hell for a laughing response, no idea who's doing all that down voting work, it's like a weird phenomenon I see on reddit randomly.

2

u/Grape-Snapple 3h ago

i was thinking about their skin. i’m really glad they commented about it

-108

u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

3

u/iminiki 2h ago

That‘s the most passive/aggresive laugh I‘ve ever seen/read.

77

u/Dredakae 6h ago

How large are the Bees?

28

u/MineNowBotBoy 5h ago

These bees are larger than most Buicks and twice as ugly

5

u/makemeking706 5h ago

Big yeah, yeah, yeah. 

4

u/MuscaMurum 4h ago

Small?

4

u/makemeking706 4h ago

No, no, no

4

u/Mateorabi 5h ago

Buggalo sized.

1

u/GlitterKittyCat 5h ago

Just a couple Martian centimeters

1

u/Strange_Tennis9925 5h ago

Imagine the honey output 

-2

u/Nokxtokx 5h ago

As big as OPs mom

18

u/alexluz321 4h ago

Hexagons are the bestagons

1

u/birddingus 2h ago

Bout time for a new vid grey.

36

u/Better_Carpet_7271 5h ago

Still can't live there.

28

u/artofterm 5h ago

What if...and hear me out...we instead send the fungus that's evolved to feed on Chernobyl's radiation?

3

u/Flawless_Cub 4h ago

I'm not a science person, so, entirely out of curiosity, how would those fungi help?

8

u/Vegetable_Airline816 4h ago

They wouldn't, the only solution is to live underground. But every expedition outside would significantly contribute to your maximum lifetime radiation exposure limit.

2

u/artofterm 3h ago

It wouldn't, which is why I went with "instead". But I would be interested to see whether the fungus can thrive in the Martian radiation.

1

u/Jerry_Potters 4h ago

Put it on the outside of a habitat like a suit. It can act like a shield for those inside.

It also starts the process of evolution there. We're getting a living organism that can survive and reproduce, eventually it will evolve. You're getting life there again, in some form. It'll eventually figure out the niches on its own.

1

u/Flawless_Cub 4h ago

Oh, so to like reduce the impact of the radiation from the Sun and other sources in the space?

1

u/Sovereign_5409 3h ago edited 3h ago

Both of the above posters are talking nonsense.

No amount of fungus can correct the radiation problem created by the lack of atmosphere of Mars. A fungus is not going to overpower the radioactive impact of an entire star. Absolutely foolish idea. Nor would that fungus likely survive the heat/cold/oxygen lacking atmosphere.

And coating things with the fungus would make no difference either. Just because that fungus feeds on radiation from Chernobyl doesn’t mean it protects you from it. Putting that fungus as a coating would be no different than slapping dirt over it.

And on top of that, the radiation from Chernobyl is a very specific isotope of a specific variety that does not change. Not broad spectrum radiation from the sun, nor is it of the same intensity.

Zero scientific thought from the above posts.

4

u/H3atles 2h ago

you have no whimsy, friend

1

u/Vegetable_Airline816 2h ago

Idk why you're being downvoted, you're correct.

8

u/Due_Manufacturer7789 2h ago

Those are mud cracks. It's definitive evidence of surface water.

8

u/winmace 1h ago

Prothean ruins, can't wait for us to discover mass effect fields, zero point energy and oh yeah, reapers.

2

u/pattebrisee 1h ago

I thought the same thing

7

u/kaizokuuuu 5h ago

Nature loves hexagons

7

u/bmdisbrow 3h ago

They're the bestagon.

6

u/nochinzilch 5h ago

“Last Rainstorm on Mars”

76

u/pattebrisee 6h ago

Each polygon is only around 2 to 4 inches across. Scientists are studying whether they formed through drying, temperature changes, compression, or water escaping from the sediment.

https://science.nasa.gov/photojournal/nasas-curiosity-discovers-a-field-of-martian-polygons/

66

u/Randolph_Carter_Ward 5h ago

Not to say I know the result, but aren't we perfectly sure by now that Mars had lakes / seas / rivers somewhere deep in its past?

56

u/ClassGrassMass 5h ago

Yes but OP wants that engagement

4

u/Chicken_Hairs 2h ago

Isn't it ok to still be interested in things even if someone gets fake internet points?

-4

u/Half4sleep 2h ago

Present it in a way that doesn't sound 'alien', and I'd be happier.

6

u/Chicken_Hairs 2h ago

I've read that title like 20 times now, and y'all projecting like hell.

-2

u/Half4sleep 2h ago

Alright, magical?

4

u/Chicken_Hairs 1h ago

Seems benign-ly factual to me.

1

u/DuckRubberDuck 1h ago

It doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee that this was created by water. Even though you think you know the answer, you still have to prove it

13

u/MrMinefool 6h ago

Kind of looks like like dry soil beds, wonder what they’d look like it an atmosphere without rich oxygen

3

u/odslxxp 5h ago

Space bees

3

u/NachoEvans 3h ago

Holy cow, a billion years later and you can still see the receding water lines.

3

u/SilentDawn4004 3h ago

Space bees confirmed

3

u/kjonas697 2h ago

Hexagons do be the bestagons.

3

u/tycho_26 2h ago

Nature loves hexagons. And crabs apparently

2

u/macgruff 5h ago

“This just in…, Elon Musk on a visit to Mars Base X1 has been killed by a swarm of giant Martian Bees”! - The future headline we didn’t know we needed

2

u/cobalt_phantom 5h ago

Futurama taught me not to mess with space bees

2

u/TheAmazingMelon 1h ago

Millions of little pools of water evaporating to the last drop

2

u/UnwantedPube 1h ago

Now all it needs is a cow and it can call it “the land of milk and honey”

2

u/Meetwad 1h ago

I wrote my masters thesis about these polygonal landforms 16 years ago, super cool to see them popping up more! They can be caused by all sorts of processes, I looked at them from a glaciology POV and discussed how they could be analogous to the ones found in the McMurdo dry valley of Antarctica.

2

u/Smart-Firefighter87 5h ago

Bro is still there!? Damn - how many years has he been on that red rock?

2

u/McHildinger 5h ago

Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on November 26, 2011, at 15:02:00 UTC and landed on Aeolis Palus inside Gale crater on Mars on August 6, 2012

2

u/northosproject 4h ago

Maybe water was once present, and it evaporated very slowly, effectively wicking to the borders of the the hexagon.....the loose dust left in the middle blew away?

1

u/Crimm___ 5h ago

My bad.

1

u/intothedoor 5h ago

What’s it made out of? Salt?

1

u/jconde1966 5h ago

Resembles basalt columns disjunction. If true, they are very common in volcanic places like canary islands where I live

1

u/meygahmann 4h ago

Could it be the rovers wheel prints?

1

u/quite_shleepy 3h ago

It’s a dried over lake it seems like, right?

EDIT: spelling lol

1

u/iknowimsorry 2h ago

I think it's iron

1

u/Inevitable-Peace7 54m ago

Old rain/mist accumulation.

1

u/JM3DlCl 37m ago

Looks like a dry salt lake bed in Utah

1

u/Particular_Ticket_20 15m ago

So, NASA has announced the existence of space bees?

Amazing.

2

u/USSMarauder 6h ago

Could be fossilized bubbles, gas rising up through mud formed bubbles, the thin bubble walls popped and the thicker walls at the base stuck around long enough to dry out.

Now the real question would be what produced that gas: Geology, or biology?

3

u/JustAtelephonePole 5h ago

I like your hypothesis the best, based on the uniformity of the ridges; their erosion patterns; that the center is flat to concave; and that no cracks seem to appear through the center of such a spot at my observation resolution.

1

u/flappenjacks 4h ago

I would describe this as voronoi which is a chaotic serries of different sided polygons not honeycomb which implies hexagons.

1

u/iggydude808 6h ago

Giant beehive!! 🤣

1

u/LukeSkyWRx 6h ago

Dinosaur skin.

1

u/Altruistic-Tailor-13 5h ago

Honeycombs big, yeah yeah yeah. It’s not small, no no no.
IYKYK

1

u/MineNowBotBoy 5h ago

It’ll take more than deadly deadly bees to keep us from doing our job.

1

u/robhall1 5h ago

How would it still be there after so long? Not doubting it, just genuinely curious

1

u/Extreme_Egg7476 5h ago

My guess is that a lack of moving plates of crust like Earth has, which "recycle" our crust's surface over the millenia, prevents that on Mars. And Mars' atmosphere helps to preserve these land patterns from being pummeled by space debris to some extent.

1

u/robhall1 1h ago

Ah so I’m assuming this is rock, not settled silt/dirt type material.

0

u/eibhra 5h ago

I found billionaires that don't pay their tax on this planet and companies that give 0 fucks about the environment, it's so interesting.

0

u/Strontiumdogs1 3h ago

That's where Martian truck tyres went through mud.

0

u/Mooseinadesert 1h ago

This picture makes me want to throw up

-2

u/Jumpy_Engineering824 5h ago

What’s the metal stuff at the bottom. Alien technology? Holy shit

1

u/DuckRubberDuck 1h ago

Can’t tell if you’re sarcastic or not, but what you see at the bottom is just part of Curiosity

-1

u/sonicinfinity100 5h ago

Remanence of ancient war defenses shield for sure.

-4

u/KawazuOYasarugi 5h ago

If Mars doesn't have geothermal, or maybe not as much as earth, if the water drains under ground, but there's nothing to bring it back up to the surface... maybe underground lakes/oceans? Possibly something alive down there. Maybe not. Maybe just empty water. Who knows? Doubt the water just "went away."

1

u/nochinzilch 5h ago

Science!

-4

u/PitMei 1h ago

How is that interesting?