A "patchwork of well-preserved ancient mud cracks" on the Martian surface hints that past extraterrestrial life on Mars was possible, a new study reveals.
In 2021, NASA's Curiosity rover snapped pictures of the polygonal shapes on the slopes of Mount Sharp, a peak that stands 3 miles (5 kilometers) high in Gale Crater — the large depression where Curiosity first landed in 2012 and has spent the entirety of its mission. The shapes, which mainly have five or six distinct sides, date to between 3.8 billion and 3.6 billion years ago.
