Volunteers helping scientists exploring Mars have found new arachnid structures from furrows on the planet's surface. Some of them are located far from the South Pole, next to which were all previously known features of this type. An article describing the results was published in the Icarus journal.
On Mars, there are many seasonal surface changes that are recorded by cameras on board orbiters. One of these processes manifests itself in the form of dark stripes "growing" from the "center" and generally similar to spiders. These unparalleled terrestrial phenomena occur at the onset of the warm season, when sunlight heats the soil covered with translucent dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide), as a result of which the ice turns back into gas and escapes outside. All such structures known so far have been located in a region of Mars called South Polar Layered Deposits (SPLD).
A new study reveals that such formations are in other circumpolar regions, such as the Hesperian and Amazonian polar regions, and the Early Noah Highlands. The suspected spiders were observed with a high-precision HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter (MRO) satellite for confirmation. The images of "spiders" were recognized by 10,000 people, who viewed and processed more than 20,000 images from another MRO - Context Camera, the resolution of which is not high and is about six meters per pixel. In addition to "spiders", scientists in the framework of this work were interested in craters and the "surface of Swiss cheese".
“It was a completely unexpected discovery,” says lead author Mag Schwamb. “Such a large number of judging eyes will help us better understand the surface changes by carbon dioxide flows. This is a completely extraterrestrial phenomenon. Apart from Mars, this phenomenon is only suspected on Neptune's moon Triton. Its study will help to understand the processes of exchange of carbon dioxide between the surface and the atmosphere. " The scientists add that they have already added to the database new images of regions located to the north and are going to find out how far from the pole such "spiders" are found.
