The Martian landscape is replete with formations that often have a very bizarre form and cannot be easily explained.
For example, this image captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) installed onboard the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft looks like freshly baked cookies.
This strange circular terrain formation was observed in the area of the Red Planet called Athabasca, where, as you know, young lava flows are located. The formation is about 2 km (1, 2 miles) wide and seems to contain blocks, while the area around them is ideally smooth. Planetary scientists are not sure how the “cookie” was formed. It may have been “baked” from the surface material when Mars was volcanically active millions of years ago.
According to a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) press release, an ancient stream of lava could seep under the surface, pushing this hill upwards. Such a non-uniform surface can be explained by the melting of surface ice.
There are many strange formations, such as this “cookie” in Atabask, the explanation of which is not easy to find.
