{"id":94671,"date":"2025-12-26T18:57:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T18:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/astronomers-discover-spiders-on-mars-not-ziggy-stardust"},"modified":"2025-12-26T19:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T19:24:13","slug":"astronomers-discover-spiders-on-mars-not-ziggy-stardust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/astronomers-discover-spiders-on-mars-not-ziggy-stardust","title":{"rendered":"Astronomers Discover Spiders on Mars Not Ziggy Stardust"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Astronomers have discovered spiders on Mars in places where they were previously not thought to exist. Fortunately for arachnophobes and unfortunately for David Bowie fans, the \u201cspiders\u201d are just geological formations that form on Mars, but not Earth.<\/p>\n

Spiders (or \u201caraneiforms,\u201d their scientific name) form during the Martian winter, when carbon dioxide turns to \u201cdry\u201d ice. When winter becomes spring, sunlight penetrates the translucent ice and warms the ground underneath it. The ice then begins to melt, causing erosion \u2014 but the carbon dioxide doesn\u2019t stay in a liquid form for long, and so it becomes gas once more. Thus, the ice turns to gas, pulling pieces of soil along with them in every direction.<\/p>\n

The end result is a mass of spindly branches that resemble spider legs \u2014 hence the nickname. Thus far, all spiders were discovered in the South Polar Layered Deposits (SPLD) near the planet\u2019s south pole.<\/p>\n

Oxford University leads the hunt for the Martian spiders through the use of the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Experiment) camera which monitors the Martian South Pole. HiRISE is aboard NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Department of Astrophysics at Oxford hosts a the Zooniverse project, where citizen volunteers can comb through HiRISE photos to search for spiders and other Martian geological phenomena.<\/p>\n

Some 10,000 such volunteers have viewed and classified the photos \u2014 and discovered that some of the spiders were showing up on the edges of the South Pole, far from where they usually form. They brought their find to the attention of astronomers, leading to an official scientific inquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a totally unexpected find,\u201d wrote Meg Schwamb with the multinational Gemini Observatory, the paper\u2019s lead author. \u201cBy having so many eyes scouring the images, we know now that the SPLD is not the only place where spiders form. This will help us better understand the carbon dioxide jet formation process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe carbon dioxide jet process that forms \u2018spiders\u2019 is a completely un-Earthly phenomenon,\u201d she added. \u201cThe only other body suspected of having these jets is Neptune\u2019s moon Triton. By studying these spiders and jets we\u2019re learning more about how Mars differs from Earth. The jet process is linked to the Martian seasons and is returning carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, studying these new locales will give new insights into the Martian atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Up next, Schwamb wants to find how far north the spiders go.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Astronomers have discovered spiders on Mars in places where they were previously not thought to exist. Fortunately for arachnophobes and unfortunately for David Bowie fans, the \u201cspiders\u201d are just geological formations that form on Mars, but not Earth. Spiders (or \u201caraneiforms,\u201d their scientific name) form during the Martian winter, when carbon dioxide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":94670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-94671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nAstronomers Discover Spiders on Mars Not Ziggy Stardust - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Astronomers have discovered spiders on Mars in places where they were previously not thought to exist. 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