Take a look at the strange polygons that NASA photographed on Mars. Where did they come from?
The surface of Mars is made up of completely different substances than the surface of Earth. Its most important components are water and dry ice, which form on mountainous Mars at high latitudes.
At the same time, it is the water ice frozen in the soil that divides the soil into polygons that create strange patterns that right now look as if the surface of Mars is blooming.
Ice flowers on Mars
The picture, taken at the end of March, shows peculiar floral patterns.
Erosion of the channels forming the boundaries of the polygons with dry ice sublimating in the spring gives them a lot of twists.
On the surface of Mars, a beautiful mosaic of white zigzags appears, which in high latitudes scatter on martian soil.
The edges of these polygons crack and fray in the spring as the surface ice changes from solid to gas — a process known as sublimation.
Spring activity is noticeable when vents form on the layer of translucent dry ice covering the surface through which gas escapes.
Between the individual cracks, there are occasional fans of black and blue fog. It is this zigzagging and colorful fogs that are significant signs of a kind of Martian spring.
