Greg Chaffins 
Romantically speaking, they look like Dragon Scales that were found on the surface of mars by the Curiosity Rover. But NASA describes them as “honeycomb-shaped polygons” that weave across the surface. They were captured on April 13 (Sol 4859) in the newly named “Antofagasta” crater, a small crater only about 32 feet wide.
Craters on Mars Present Opportunities
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains:
“Craters are very cool for many reasons, one of which is that they act as ‘nature’s drill,’ exposing material to the surface through their walls and ejecta that would have otherwise been buried.”
Which explains why craters are of particular interest to NASA as it crawls the Martian surface. This crater in particular is of potential since it it is a younger crater compared to other places on the surface:
“Antofagasta looks like it might be a relatively young crater, so there may be material in and around the crater that was only exposed to the harsh, organic-molecule destroying radiation environment on Mars’ surface in the very recent past.”
JPL goes on to say that this particular area is more abundant with the striking surface feature that resembles our favorite medieval monster:
“Many of the rocks we’ve driven over have these incredible textures — thousands of honeycomb-shaped polygons crisscross their surface. We’ve seen polygon-patterned rocks like these before, but they didn’t seem quite this dramatically abundant, stretching across the ground for meters and meters in our Mastcam mosaics.”
Findings Help Shape the History of Mars
So, while they might not be actual dragon scales, the finding that we have patterns of erosion that fit a wet area is exciting on its own. These types of patterns on Earth can be found where the lake bed has dried out and rehydrated over many times, which tells another part of the complex story of Mar’s history and possibly its future.
