Over the years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been striving to unravel major mysteries in Mars. It all started when a few years ago, scientists discovered liquid on the surface of this cold planet. Since then, speculations of organic life on this planet have grown. Recently, an image captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter appears to show spiders crawling over the surface of the Red Planet's southern hemisphere. Mars may not look like a lively space, but it has seasons and many exciting things across them which has been observed by the astronauts.

The recent image was taken on May 13, 2018, during winter at the South Pole of Mars. However, the spiders which seem to emerge from the landscape, are not actually the creatures but are known as "araneiform terrain". These as described by NASA, are the spider-like radiating mounds that are formed when carbon dioxide below the surface heats up and releases. They further explained that this is an active seasonal process which is not seen on Earth. Mars continuously surprises us with such unseen activities. NASA linked the occurrence to the properties of dry ice on our planet. "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," wrote NASA in their release.

With time, the captured carbon dioxide gas builds under 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. They further stated that the loss of sublimated carbon dioxide leaves behind these features that appear to be spiders etched into the surface of the red planet.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 16, 2018 12:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).