Spacecraft spots "spiders" scattered across surface of Mars

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Updated on: April 25, 2024 / 12:33 PM EDT / CBS News NASA looking for Mars simulator participants NASA looking for people to live in a Mars simulator 04:54 A unique phenomenon that could be mistaken for spiders scuttling across the planet's surface has been spotted on Mars, according to the European Space Agency.
The ESA said in a news release that one of its Mars Express orbiter captured images of the "spiders," which are really just small, dark-colored features that begin to be formed when sunshine falls on carbon dioxide deposited during the planet's winter months.
The light causes the carbon dioxide ice at the bottom of the deposits to turn into gas, which eventually bursts through ice that can be up to three feet thick, shooting dust out in geyser-like blasts before settling on the surface, the space agency said.
The spider patterns were observed by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which launched in 2016 and has been studying Mars for signs of possible past life.