The dark spots in this image from ESA’s Mars Express are the telltale sign of ‘spiders’ scattered across the southern polar region of Mars. These small features form when carbon dioxide gas warms up in sunlight and breaks through slabs of overlying ice, etching branched grooves into the surface and dragging dark material up to the surface to form dark blotches.
Rather than being actual spiders, these small, dark features form when spring sunshine falls on layers of carbon dioxide deposited over the dark winter months. The sunlight causes carbon dioxide ice at the bottom of the layer to turn into gas, which subsequently builds up and breaks through slabs of overlying ice. The gas bursts free in Martian springtime, dragging dark material up to the surface as it goes and shattering layers of ice up to a meter thick.
Another of ESA’s Mars explorers, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter , has imaged the spiders’ tendril-like patterns especially clearly . The spiders captured by TGO lie near, but outside, the region shown in this new Mars Express image. The Mars Express view shows the dark spots on the surface formed by escaping gas and material, while the TGO perspective also captures the spidery, web-like channels that are carved into the ice below.
This oblique perspective view shows a part of Mars nicknamed Inca City. The reason for this is no mystery, with the linear, almost geometric network of ridges being reminiscent of Inca ruins. More formally known as Angustus Labyrinthus, Inca City was discovered in 1972 by NASA’s Mariner 9 probe. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU BerlinWe’re still not sure exactly how Inca City formed. It could be that sand dunes have turned to stone over time.
This view was created from data collected by ESA’s Mars Express on February 27, 2024, and is based on a digital terrain model of the region, from which the topography of the landscape can be derived. Lower parts of the surface are shown in blues and purples, while higher altitude regions show up in whites and reds, as indicated on the scale to the top right.
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