The science team used dry ice in order to determine how patterns similar to those seen on images of Mars can emerge.
A potential explanation for the strange black patterns spotted on satellite images of Mars’ southern pole has emerged thanks to the efforts of scientists from Trinity College Dublin and their colleagues at Durham University and the Open University.
According to Live Science, the patterns, whose “creepy” appearance earned them the “araneiforms” (“spider-like”) moniker from researchers, and which measure up to a kilometre across, were discovered over two decades ago.
The team discovered that, upon making contact with “a much-warmer bed of Mars-like sediment,” a portion of the ice immediately transformed into gas, leaving “spidery cracks” on the slab’s surface, the media outlet notes.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
