Martian ‘Spider’ Mystery; Know More About ESA's New Image That Reveals Surprising Truth
By William Rodriguez
Take a deep breath, arachnophobes; those creepy spider-like formations on Mars are actually not as they seem. The European Space Agency (ESA) has discovered that these strange structures are not spooky crawlies but seasonal outbreaks of carbon dioxide gas.
The myth and science behind these spiders
These slender dark formations in a region called Inca City in Mars’ southern polar area were photographed by ESA’s Mars Express orbiter and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. At first glance, they appear like clusters of spiders, each about the size of a small house and each with legs thousands of miles long. But let’s look a little closer.
These features are channels filled with gas, ranging from 0.03 to 0.6 miles wide, created during the Martian spring as temperatures rise in the southern hemisphere and carbon dioxide ice begins to melt. This process is called sublimation where ice instantly transforms into gas without passing through its liquid phase.
The expanding and rising gas then burst through weak points in this overlying layer of ice, carrying dust from beneath it up along with it. Which then cascades down in curtains that freeze into a more solid material that is denser than the surrounding surface originally was.
This heavier material thus falls down towards the middle of each curtain creating darker lines or grooves on either side. This also causes some parts, further away from where we see them now, may have eroded even more than others leaving behind an intricate pattern; like cracked skin after sunburn; revealed here at last.
AdvertisementThanks mainly due to better imaging technology available only recently such as these orbiters provide us with today.
Inca City’s secrets
Inca City is one part of Angustus Labyrinthus, linear ridgelines resembling ancient ruins. Initially, it was thought of as petrified sand dunes or remnants of glaciers until Mars Orbiter showed what they really were.
Inca City is the only part currently visible from above ground as it has been partially buried by younger sediments that were deposited there after these events took place. Therefore if we want to know more about what happened here then we need to go deeper below our feet than any previous robotic mission ever has done before.
Furthermore, Inca City turns out to be just one small circular section within an enormous circular area some 53 miles across which may represent either an old impact crater or perhaps even more intriguing.
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