It looks like something out of a science fiction film: spiders measuring between 45 meters and one kilometer. But the ESA gives the all-clear: it is a phenomenon caused by the spring sun on the surface of Mars.
the essentials in brief
With the Mars expedition ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, ESA observes spider-shaped dark formations on the planet’s surface.
The “signs of spiders from Mars” arise from gas masses escaping during the “Martian spring”.
The spider-like structures border another phenomenon on Mars: the Inca city of the red planet.
There are small, dark structures on the surface of Mars. Although they are not real spiders as we know them from Earth, they are escaping materials.
As soon as the warm spring sun falls on the surface of the red planet, the carbon dioxide ice turns into a gaseous state. The result: The gas makes its way through the one meter thick layer of ice and throws various materials to the surface. This creates the dark spots on the images taken by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which are reminiscent of spiders in shape. This emerges from a report from the European Space Agency (ESA) on Wednesday (April 24).
Has ESA discovered a gas spider nest on Mars?
ESA jokingly writes in a statement: “No sign of Ziggy Stardust – but ESA’s Mars Express has photographed the telltale traces of ‘spiders’ scattered across the southern polar region of Mars.” Since Mars is significantly further away from the Sun than Earth, the surface is covered with ice in many places. This circumstance makes the spider-like phenomenon possible. In the so-called “Martian spring”, as temperatures rise, carbon dioxide that was previously in frozen form flows to the surface and “This causes dark material to rise to the surface and shatter layers of ice up to a meter thick“, reports the ESA.
“The escaping gas, laden with dark dust, shoots up through cracks in the ice in the form of tall fountains or geysers before falling back down and settling on the surface. This creates dark spots with a diameter between 45 m and 1 km,” explains the European Space Agency. It was only with the help of the new TGIO that scientists were able to make the dark formations on the planet visible. The perspective of the TGO captures the spider web-like channels that are formed in the underlying ice.
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ESA: Spiders are next to Mars’ Inca City
The spider-like webs border directly on a previously unexplained Martian phenomenon: the “Inca City”, better known as Angustus Labyrinthus. The Inca city was discovered in 1972 by the NASA probe Mariner 9. The rock shapes earned their name Inca city because of their “almost geometric[s] “Network of mountain ridges” that are strongly reminiscent of the ruins of the Latin American Inca Empire.
The researchers assume that the geometric shapes were created by sand dunes that have turned into stone over time. Another assumption is that magma seeps through the Martian rock layers and is responsible for the formations. Other theories assume that the winding structures were formed by glaciers on Mars.
“The ‘walls’ of the Inca city appear to draw part of a large circle with a diameter of 86 km. Scientists therefore suspect that the ‘city’ is in one big crater lies, which itself came into being, as one Stone from space on the planet surface crashed,” wrote ESA about the mysterious Martian city.