I got goosebumps because I discovered hundreds of 'black spiders' on Mars

New photos taken by the European Space Agency of the south polar region of Mars show dark spots resembling a flock of giant spiders crawling on the surface of the red planet.

According to Newsweek magazine on April 25, the "spiders" were photographed by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express near an area nicknamed "Inca City". recently at the south pole of Mars, and these photos are enough to make anyone with arachnophobia cringe.

Evocative image of hundreds of black spiders taken by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter on Mars - (Photo: ESA)

However , this is not a real spider. They are dark spots that formed on the surface of Mars as gas burst through the carbon dioxide (CO2) ice.

According to the science news site Popular Science , Mars has four distinct seasons, similar to Earth. The ESA explains that the spider-like dark spots appear in the Martian spring when sunlight shines on layers of carbon dioxide - layers that were deposited during the dark Martian winter.

Sunlight causes carbon dioxide ice in the bottom layer to turn into gas. Gas accumulates and then breaks up the ice sheets that cover the poles of Mars. The dark matter will be drawn to the surface as the gas moves and breaks up ice layers up to 1 meter thick.

This black, dusty gas shoots up, radiates through cracks in the ice like fountains or geysers, then settles as dark spots.

Science news site Live Science describes the black spots as looking like black spiders huddled together, with legs surrounding them.

Seen from space, these dark spots look small, but they are actually quite large. The ESA says they are about 45m wide, with the largest being up to 1km wide.