Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Starbust Spider

Photo of what known as the Starbust Spider, taken from NASA's MRO

At first glance you would think that this place is just somewhere in the north or south pole. Or better yet a place somewhere in Colorado or within the ranges of the Rocky Mountains. But this is not. This place can only be found in Mars. That's right. This is a seasonal cap of carbon dioxide ice from the surface of Mars. With constant studies on Mars and surface footages are being produced by the MRO or Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists are given more clips of ideas of what it is happening on Mars. The presence of ice in Mars don't necessarily give the scientist a chance to prove the existence of water on the red planet. Unfortunately, the ice do not undergo condensation so no presence of water is created rather it sublimates - a proces in which carbon ice directly becomes vapor. Oh, the name of this place is attributed to the spider leg through or web like trenches that are created by the gas escaping out from under the ice formation.

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