The images recently published on the social profiles byEuropean Space Agency (Esa), in which small black spots, similar to spiders, are seen on the surface of Mars. What is it actually about? Clearly, despite looking like one, they are not truly arachnids. The phenomenon actually has an explanation.
What happens every spring
“Spiders on Mars? No, these dark spots, seen from ESA’s Mars Express on the outskirts of an area nicknamed “Inca City” in the southern polar region of Mars, have a more ‘terrestrial’ explanation…“, wrote the researchers of the European Space Agency on a colony of spiders. But that’s not what it’s about.
No Matian spiders. What was immortalized by ESA’s Mars Express is nothing more than a phenomenon that occurs on Mars when spring arrives on the planet. Those that appear to be arachnids have a diameter of 45 meters – they are not exactly small, in short – and, in reality, they are gas leak channels. But let’s explain.
On Mars, one year is equivalent to 687 Earth days. Winter, specifically, lasts 154 days (in the northern hemisphere, the cold season ended on December 26, 2022, while it began in the southern hemisphere on January 12, 2024). In winter on Mars, temperatures reach -123°C, and snow and CO2 glaciers form. With the arrival of the Martian spring, the glaciers crack, until they form real ones geysers from which steam comes out. The gas accumulated underground and released outside can carry dust, which then settles on the surface of the geyser. Hence the curious formations that almost look like spiders.
How the mind deceives the human eye
The reason why we see hundreds of arachnids when observing the Martian soil lies in our minds. In psychology we talk about pareidoliaor pareidolitic illusion, that is, a subconscious illusion that leads us to trace objects and structures to known images that in reality have absolutely random shapes.
This is why instead of Martian geysers we see many small spiders.
