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Seen on Mars’ surface are ‘strange marks.’ Learn what it is.

The High-Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured and uploaded a strange image of polygonal markings on the surface of the red planet. As spring arrives on Mars, this strange occurrence has surfaced. On the planet’s surface at high latitudes, the image shows a network of patchworks of white zigzags. In between these patchworks, it also reveals the sporadic formation of black and blue mist sprays. When the water ice that is frozen in the soil rips it apart, polygons are formed. According to experts from the University of Arizona, which controls the spacecraft in Martian orbit, the edges of these polygons split in the spring as the surface ice sublimates into gas.

In a statement, the HiRISE team said, ‘Erosion of the channels forming the boundaries of the polygons by dry ice sublimating in the spring adds plenty of twists and turns to them.’

Dry ice that covers the surface and is translucent develops valves that let gas escape. Additionally, the surface-originating tiny particles carried by this gas help to degrade the channels even more.

‘The dust forms dark deposits in the form of fans as it falls to the surface. The bright streaks where the fans were initially put are sometimes left as the black particles sink into the dry ice’, the University added.

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