When you see Mars from afar it is easy to assume that it is just a featureless red rock, but once you take a closer look at the surface you will find some very interesting things. One of the most unusual sightings scientists have seen on the surface of the planet is the “spiders,” called dark blobs surrounded by wormholes in Martian soil. They have been a complete mystery to explorers and with nothing like them appearing on Earth, no one could explain how they were created. That is, so far.
New study published in the journal Scientific Reports explains how experimentation enabled researchers to reproduce the strange features like spiders here on Earth. As it turns out, the spiders appear to be the result of moving seasons on Mars. When the temperature changes, it can greatly affect the surface and whatever is inside it, and in this case that means CO2.
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The science team began experimenting with things that are already known on Mars, including CO2. Mars’ s atmosphere is largely made up of CO2 and, when the temperature drops during the Martian winter, that CO2 becomes cold enough to turn to ice. Any CO2 ice on the surface warms up when the seasons change again and converts directly from solid to gas through a process called sublimation.
While testing CO2 sublimation in a “Mars simulation chamber” consisting of various granular substrates, the team found that dry ice turns to gas generating a similar pattern.
“The research team would drill holes in the bases of CO2 ice blocks and hang them with a claw similar to those found in arcs, over granular beds of different grain sizes. They reduced the pressure inside an empty chamber to a Martian atmospheric pressure (6mbar) and then used a lever system to put the CO2 ice block on the surface, ”a press release accompanying the paper explains .
“In either case, once the block was erected, a spider’s web was eroded by the escaping gas. Spider patterns were more branched when finer grain sizes were used and less branched when coarser grain sizes were used. This is the first set of empirical evidence for this surface process. ”
So, if the surface is much warmer than it needs to be for sublimation to occur, the gas flowing out under the dry ice will essentially scrape off surface material, creating the similar shapes. to a spider. But how would the surface reach that temperature if the seasonal changes are so gradual? The researchers acknowledge that sunlight may pass through the ice and heat the ground below.
It all makes sense, but without seeing the process play out on the surface, the researchers cannot be 100% sure that their theories are correct.
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Mike Wehner has been reporting on technology and video games for the past decade, covering news and trends in VR, wearables, smartphones, and the future of tech. Mike was most recently a Tech Editor at The Daily Dot, and has appeared in USA Today, Time.com, and in countless web and print outlets. His love of narrating only second place on his game thesis.