See you later, Martian alligator. 🐊 From a distance, the floor of this crater looks like alligator scales or a spider web. The intersecting shapes, or polygons, are common occurrences in the northern lowlands of Mars. The polygons in this "patterned ground" are easy to see because their edges are bound by troughs or ridges covered by bright frost relative to their darker, frost-free interiors. Patterned ground on Mars is thought to form due to cyclic thermal contraction (Martian soil heating and cooling in cycles) causing cracking in the permanently frozen ground. Scientists study polygonally-patterned ground on Mars because the occurrence and physical characteristics of the polygons help us understand the recent and past distribution of ice (frozen water) in the shallow subsurface. These features also provide clues about climate conditions on the Red Planet's surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona #NASA #Mars #RedPlanet #Space #SolarSystem #Ice #Satellite