New images from two European Space Agency (ESA) probes, Mars Express and the Trace Gas Orbiter, show curious patterns on Mars in incredible detail.
By: Excelsior
These are arachnid formations clustered around the planet's south pole, known as “Mars spiders” because of their unique, arachnid-like shape.
Their scientific name is “areniformes,” which means “spider-shaped” in Latin, and are formed when spring sunlight falls on layers of frozen carbon dioxide (CO2) on the Martian surface.
Sunlight turns the CO2 ice at the bottom of the solid layer into a gas, which then explodes upward through the overlapping ice sheets.
The ejected gases break up the dark, dusty, one-meter-thick layers of ice that fall and settle on the surface, forming dark spider-shaped spots 45 m to 1 km wide. Images from space probes.
Spiders on Mars?
No, these dark spots spotted by ESA's Mars Express on the outskirts of Mars' south polar region nicknamed 'Inca City' still have a 'down to earth' interpretation… pic.twitter.com/1A31L2iOMN
—European Space Agency (@esa) April 24, 2024
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