Spiders on Mars? Here’s the phenomenon behind these intriguing images

In a recent press release, the European Space Agency (ESA) mentioned “spiders on Mars.”

If the dark star shapes photographed actually look like arthropods, they are not.

Discussed? A climate phenomenon that we will explain to you in more detail.

Belonging “Spiders on Mars”. This is the expression used by the European Space Agency (ESA) in a recent press release, backed up by particularly intriguing photographs. If dark star shapes photographed in the polar region south of the Red Planet do indeed immediately resemble the fearsome eight-legged hairy arthropods, then they are actually just the result of an optical illusion. In reality it’s just dust and ice cracks. Reason: climatic phenomenon.

In more detail, “These little dark features form when the spring sun hits layers of carbon dioxide deposited during the dark winter months.” explains ESA. “Sunlight causes ice to change from carbon dioxide to gas.” – she continues, giving a very clear explanation for this seemingly mysterious phenomenon.

This accumulating gas eventually erupts in the Martian spring, releasing giant fountains of dust and sand that fall back onto the planet, gradually creating dark, spidery patches. For reference: each of them measures 45 meters and one kilometer in diameter, respectively.

They were photographed using the high-resolution camera of the Mars Express spacecraft near the “City of the Incas,” which also has nothing in common with the ruins of the same name located in Peru, except for the similarity with them due to the dunes, which over time turned into stone, says the European Space Agency.