NASA finds 'spiders' crawling on Mars
New Delhi : Spiders on the Mars sound amazing. Isn’t it! NASA finds spiders crawling across the Mars landscape but don’t worry, they won’t bite you. This might have been David Bowie's backing band here on Earth, but the term has a total different meaning when we link it with the Red Planet.
NASA released a creepy-crawly landscape view from Mars this week and the image has become the topic of interest for people around. The image of the planet's South Pole comes from the space agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and it shows "spiders" budding from the ground.
Science experts termed the spider as "araneiform terrain." NASA says these are "spider-like radiating embankment that forms when carbon dioxide ice below the surface heats up and releases." The MRO captured the image on May 13 as spring was beginning on Mars.
Scientists at NASA undertook a deeper research behind these leggy formations. They say, the spiders return seasonally as carbon dioxide ice morphs from a solid into a gas. That gas builds up under the surface before breaking through in jets that deposit dark dust around the vent. The wind may also play a role in arranging the streaky-looking legs of dust.
Though Mars and Earth have a lot of intersect when it comes to landscape activity, yet the process that creates the spiders is not seen on our lively planet.
