The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter recently returned some interesting images of Mars, that appeared to show large groups of… spiders?
No, they aren’t spiders. We can all relax, even the most afflicted Martian arachnophobes.
The ESA said in a news release that one of its Mars Express orbiter captured images of the “spiders,” which are really just small, dark-colored features that begin to be formed when sunshine falls on carbon dioxide deposited during the planet’s winter months. The light causes the carbon dioxide ice at the bottom of the deposits to turn into gas, which eventually bursts through ice that can be up to three feet thick, shooting dust out in geyser-like blasts before settling on the surface, the space agency said.
While the spots might look tiny from space, they’re actually fairly large. The ESA said that the patches are as small as 145 feet wide, at…
