Not long ago, images captured of an area dubbed the “Inca City” of Mars shocked viewers due to the presence of what appears to be giant spider-like formations.
According to Sci-News, the features that NASA scientists refer to as “Mars spiders” are small, dark structures resembling spiders, with diameters reaching up to 1 kilometer.
While NASA does not believe these are actual spiders, the discovery has puzzled the scientific community for some time.
The “Mars spiders” have also made a strong impression on the public due to their eerie appearance, especially since they appear in an area that resembles an ancient Inca city.
Giant black spider-like structures surrounding an area resembling Inca ruins on Mars – (Photo: NASA).
Now, a research team led by Dr. Lauren McKeown from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has recreated some conditions in the area and uncovered the truth about these “spiders.”
In a model known as Kieffer, sunlight penetrates the transparent carbon dioxide ice of Mars during spring.
Thermal radiation is trapped, heating the bedrock beneath the ice layer and causing this impermeable ice to sublimate from the bottom.
Through this process, it is proposed that the “spiders” are created by erosion caused by high-velocity gas flows that erode the underlying rock, while fan-shaped structures and various spots are scattered across the ice surface, deposited by a flow of dust and gas.
To obtain these answers, the NASA research team had to recreate the extremely low air pressure and temperatures of -185 degrees Celsius found on Mars using a liquid nitrogen cooling test chamber.
The result was an environment resembling the southern hemisphere of the planet, where the “Inca City” is located.
Through a process similar to what has been described, these eerie “spiders” appeared in NASA’s laboratory.
Mars spiders are not signs of life, but this does not mean that NASA has stopped pursuing the search for extraterrestrial life in this region.
On the contrary, gaining a deeper understanding of these strange environments on the planet—revealed through these special structures—can help them learn more about how the planet evolved, and from there, consider where life may have existed in the past, what form it may have taken, and what traces it may have left behind.
