– No sign of Ziggy Stardust, writes ESA, the European Space Agency, on its website with reference to the David Bowie record “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” from 1972.
What ESA has found, however, are recent images of “spiders” on Mars.
The space agency’s probe, “Mars Express”, has captured the special phenomenon, which takes place at the red planet’s south pole.
When it is winter – the absence of the sun – at the south pole of Mars, large amounts of carbon dioxide accumulate and settle on the ground in layers of ice, explains ESA. When it is spring and sunny, the sun’s rays heat up the lower layers so that they turn into gas.
This gas then bursts through the ice. The gas is filled with dark dust which, according to ESA, can settle up to a kilometer beyond the surface of the pole.
As the seasons take their course on Earth, so on Mars. Eventually, the dust settles in layer upon layer over the course of the Martian years.
Finally, the spectacular “spiders” that “Mars Express” has photographed are formed.
Occupying “Inca city”
ESA writes that the “spiders”, among other things, are crawling over a well-known landmark known as “Inca City” on the planet.
The area – which has structures reminiscent of human activity – was first discovered in 1972 by NASA. “Mars Express” has taken completely new photos of the area.
CITY? The structures have been named “Inca City”. Photo: ESA
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The Incas, or the Inca Empire, is the name given to the South American civilization that ruled over vast areas of land in the west of the continent before Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro, conquered the area in the 1530s.
The architecture of the Incas, with square buildings in the mountains in Peru and Chile, among others, has a distinctive expression. The structures in “Inca City” on Mars may resemble these.
Tags: Mysterious spiders Mars
