The curiosity rover captured a field of broad, shallow pits on Mount Sharp that researchers say look almost like “footprints” on Mars, a feature Space.com described in a Sept. 15 photo write-up.
Images published by Space.com show a wide, shallow pit and surrounding impressions that the outlet called “unlike anything scientists have seen before” on the Red Planet; Space.com dated its story Sept. 15, 2026.
NASA’s Curiosity team has described the observations in a NASA Science blog post by Michelle Minitti, deputy principal investigator for the rover’s MAHLI camera, saying “features unlike quite anything we have seen in the past,” and noting the pits were “much broader and shallower than past features,” according to a Tech/ Yahoo summary that quotes the blog.
The team has collected data from Curiosity’s MAHLI, Mastcam, ChemCam and APX instruments to study the pits, and the blog says the material inside them appears chemically different from surrounding bedrock.
Researchers do not yet have a confirmed formation mechanism. NASA’s blog framed next steps as further analysis of the instruments’ data to determine how the pits formed and what they reveal about local geology.
Previous Curiosity discoveries have included unusual crack and polygon patterns and small divots, but the blog and Space.com contrasted those with these new, broader shallow pits that lack obvious objects or fills in their centers.
For readers tracking the rover, the immediate takeaway is observational: Curiosity photographed a new, unusual bedrock texture and the science team is using onboard cameras and spectrometers to analyze its composition before drawing conclusions.
Sources
- Space.com — reported the Sept. 15, 2026 photo feature showing the broad, shallow pit and described it as “unlike anything scientists have seen before.”
- Tech/ Yahoo — summarized the NASA Science blog and quoted Michelle Minitti describing the pits as “much broader and shallower than past features” and listed the instruments used.
- NASA Science — Curiosity blog post by Michelle Minitti (Curiosity MAHLI deputy principal investigator) noting the unexpected features and the team’s plan to analyze MAHLI, Mastcam, ChemCam and APX measurements.
