NASA spots more alien spiders on Mars

American space agency, NASA has released pictures of ‘spiders’ on the Red Planet… which still don’t prove that aliens once lived on the Martian surface.

Despite their colourful name, the spiders are actually mounds formed by a natural process.

The images were captured by Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and show an area near the south pole of the wine-dark world. Nasa wrote: ‘These aren’t actual spiders.’ ‘The spider-like radiating mounds form when carbon dioxide ice below the surface heats up and releases.

‘This is an active seasonal process not seen on Earth. Like dry ice on Earth, the carbon dioxide ice on Mars sublimates as it warms (changes from solid to gas) and the gas becomes trapped below the surface.

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‘Over time the trapped carbon dioxide gas builds in pressure and is eventually strong enough to break through the ice as a jet that erupts dust.

‘The gas is released into the atmosphere and darker dust may be deposited around the vent or transported by winds to produce streaks.

‘The loss of the sublimated carbon dioxide leaves behind these spider-like features etched into the surface.’

Nasa released pictures of another set of ‘spiders’ just after David Bowie’s death in January 2016.

 

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