In addition to ‘spiders’, probes on Mars have already revealed dunes, aluminum foil, organic matter, a lake and even a door | Science

Since the beginning of space exploration, it was believed that the Red Planet could have signs of life, even if it was already extinct.

Over the years, probes on Mars have revealed dunes, aluminum foil, organic matter, a lake and even a door.

The ‘spiders’ were in the region of the Martian south pole called “Inca City”. They would be the result of ice that, with the change from winter to spring, releases carbon dioxide, forming channels that range from 45 meters to one kilometer in diameter, according to records from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter probe.

It was about a piece of aluminum foil which agency scientists said could be part of a thermal blanket used to protect the robot before its landing on the red planet.

The unusual thing, according to NASA, was the fact that the material was found about 2km away from the Perseverance landing site, which is on the planet as part of the space agency’s Mars Exploration Program.

The robot landed in February 2022, in the Jezero Crater, a region of the planet that was once a lake billions of years ago.

Also in 2022, a photo of a geological formation on Mars went viral on social media. Many users saw it as a “door”, while others ventured into guesses about whether an extraterrestrial civilization could create a “passage” on the red planet.

The images were taken by the Curiosity robot and, according to NASA scientists, it was a matter of perspective. They explained that, in fact, the “door” was a crevice, a small fissure between the rocks.

A year earlier, the same robot discovered, also in the Jezero Crater, a closed lake, fed by the mouth of a river, around 3.6 billion years ago. These were the first scientific results from Perseverance’s work on Mars. A series of images of the site were transmitted by satellite. Perseverance is on the planet as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.

The study was published in the magazine “Science”, the first since the landing of Perseverance in February 2021. Supercam made it possible to identify sediment strata that are “great candidates for finding signs of past life”, explained the National Center at the time of French Scientific Research.

NASA robot discovers organic matter on Mars

Information about the find was published in the scientific journal “Nature”, but the publication did not reveal exactly which molecule or molecules were found. The material was in Jezero Crater, where Perseverance landed.

Also according to NASA, strangely shaped rocks like this are not uncommon, whether on Earth or the Red Planet. These structures often form over eons as winds “sculpt” their features.

The photo was captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in November 2022 and surprised scientists with its special appearance.

Although slightly asymmetrical, the mounds were found in a region around much more irregular dunes, near a crater in Utopia Planitia, in the northern hemisphere of the planet.

The diversity of shapes and textures on the surface of Mars is something that has always caught the attention of scientists. The photo of the dunes is part of a series of images from a project that monitors how the end of winter influences these formations on the planet.

Curiosity rover sends ‘postcard’ image of Mars