The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter of the European Space Agency (ESA) has taken a photo of a phenomenon known simply as “martian spider marks”. Of course, giant spiders don’t congregate in the southern arctic regions of the planet; the dark features cover a phenomenon that occurs in the Martian ice at the time of spring.
According to the ESA, the spider-like lines are formed when spring sunlight falls on layers of carbon dioxide deposited during the dark winter months. “Sunlight causes the carbon dioxide ice at the bottom of the layer to turn into a gas, which then builds up and breaks through the ice sheets above it. The gas is released during the Martian spring, bringing dark matter with it to the surface as it goes, and breaking up layers of ice up to one meter thick,” they write.
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ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter shot
Photo: ESA
As the gas bursts to the surface, it pushes up dust and sand, creating gigantic fountains, and then the material falls back to the planet. During sedimentation, the shapes shown in the picture are formed, the diameter of which varies between 45 meters and one kilometer.
An image of the Martian region named Inca City after its special formations was also published, which was made on the basis of recordings of the Mars Express space probe and digital terrain models, and on which the dark shapes also appear – albeit less spider-like.
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The region called Inca City is in the south polar region of Mars
Source: ESA / Björn Schreiner 2024 @ FU Berlin
The fact that we see these natural formations as spiders is caused by a phenomenon called pareidolia – this includes when we see animals in the clouds, when the face of Jesus appears on a piece of toast, or when a human face appears on Mars.
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A more recent image of the mountain in the Cydonia region of Mars, known as the “face on Mars” (in the corner, the original image that caused speculation, taken by Viking-1)
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Tags: strange spring phenomenon Martian ice resembles gathering giant spiders
