David Bowie famously christened his backing band 'The Spiders from Mars' in the early 1970s.

But the rock legend surely had no idea that this describes a real phenomenon on our neighbouring red planet. 

Although not actual spiders, 'araneiforms' are dark cracks in the Martian soil, completely different to anything on Earth. 

Clustered around Mars' south pole, they're known as 'spiders from Mars' because they have a distinctive arachnid-like shape.  

New images from two European Space Agency probes – the Mars Express and the Trace Gas Orbiter – show the curious formations in incredible detail. 

In this new Mars Express image, small, dark features known as 'spiders' can be seen on the surface. These form as carbon dioxide gas warms up in sunlight and breaks through slabs of overlying ice

A slice of the Martian surface is shown here, captured by ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. A rounded segment of an eroded crater basin is visible to the right. Note the numerous dark spots with tendrils that are eerily reminiscent of spiders. These are visible in large numbers to the left, and scattered irregularly across the rest of the image

What are the 'spiders' on Mars?

Araneiforms, more colloquially coined 'spiders', are strange features that are carved in the Martian regolith within the south polar regions. 

They have been proposed to form in spring, when sunlight passes through and heats a seasonal layer of CO2 ice.

This heat causes gas to build up beneath it and shoot up through cracks in the ice before falling back down and settling on the surface.

Because the emerging gas is laden with dark dust, it leaves dark marks that have been likened to spiders.

Such a process doesn't occur on Earth.

Source: ESA/McKeown et al

The scientific name for these features – 'araneiforms' – literally means 'shaped like a spider' in Latin. 

They form when spring sunshine falls on layers of frozen carbon dioxide (CO2) on the planet's surface. 

The sunlight causes CO2 ice at the bottom of the solid layer to turn into gas, which subsequently builds up and bursts upwards through slabs of overlying ice. 

The emerging jets of gas, laden with dark dust, shatters through layers of ice up to three feet (one metre) thick before falling back down and settling on the surface. 

This creates characteristic 'spider-shaped' dark spots of between 150 feet and 3,000 feet across that can be seen in space probe images. 

'The carbon dioxide jet process that forms 'spiders' is a completely un-Earthly phenomenon,' said Dr Meg Schwamb, astronomer at Queen's University Belfast.

'The jet process is linked to the Martian seasons and is returning carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.' 

'By studying these spiders and jets we're learning more about how Mars differs from Earth.' 

According to Dr Schwamb, the only other body suspected of having these jets is Neptune's moon Triton, which is known to be geologically active. 

David Bowie played with his backing band the Spiders from Mars during the Ziggy Stardust era (1972). The singer recruited the band but named them after a line in his song 'Ziggy Stardust'

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, with a 'near-dead' dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. This image of the planet was acquired using the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, November 10, 2023

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Araneiforms were first observed more than 20 years ago, but it was only in 2021 that astronomers proved how exactly they form.

The researchers at Trinity College Dublin recreated the Martian process in the lab by lowering and lifting blocks of frozen CO2 onto beds of gravel. 

Experiments showed that the spider patterns are carved by the direct conversion of dry ice from solid to gas, known as 'sublimation'.  

Such a process occurs on Mars because the planet has an atmosphere comprised mostly of CO2 – around 95 per cent. 

On Earth, meanwhile, only about 0.04 per cent of the atmosphere is CO2; instead the majority is made up of nitrogen (78 per cent) and oxygen (20 per cent). 

According to the ESA, araneiforms are especially clustered at the outskirts of a part of Mars nicknamed Inca City. 

More formally known as Angustus Labyrinthus, Inca City was discovered in 1972 by NASA's Mariner 9 probe – the same year Bowie and the Spiders from Mars released their landmark album. 

Mars is shown here in tones of brown and tan. To the left, two key features can be seen - a raised network of linear, grid-like ridges and walls known as Inca City, and a scattering of dark spots that indicate the presence of features known as 'spiders'

David Bowie performs with The Spiders From Mars on the first night of the Ziggy Stardust Tour at Borough Assembly Hall in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire on January 29, 1972. From left, Trevor Bolder, David Bowie, Mick 'Woody' Woodmansey and Mick Ronson

Bowie recruited the band but gave them a new name, taken from a line in his song 'Ziggy Stardust' which features on the album. 

As araneiforms were not known about 50 years ago, Bowie actually took inspiration from another source – a UFO sighting in October 1954. 

An Italian stadium crowd thought they had witnessed Martian spacecraft that cast off a thin filament material – hypothesised to be webs from migrating spiders. 

Meanwhile, title of one of Bowie's most famous hits – 'Life on Mars' from 1971 – was allegedly inspired by intense media coverage of the race to reach the planet between the US and the Soviet Union. 

As for whether there's life on Mars, scientists generally think the answer is likely no largely because of its lack of atmosphere and freezing temperatures. 

The possibility that there was life on Mars is more promising, as it's thought the planet was once covered with a lush liquid ocean. 

STAR LIZARD: DINOSAUR WITH BONY FRILLS NAMED IN HONOUR OF DAVID BOWIE 

An exuberant dinosaur with a parrot-like beak, bony frills, a huge horn on its nose and a 'star-like' skull was named in honour of British rock musician David Bowie.

US palaeontologists gave the dinosaur genus the name Stellasaurus, meaning 'star lizard', based on a fossilised skull found in Montana. 

During its existence across the barren American terrain 75 million years ago, Stellasaurus ancellae would have relied on its stunning horns to attract mates – much like the promiscuous Bowie's loud outfits during his glam phase.  

The genus name Stellasaurus, or 'star lizard', is derived from 'stella', which is Latin for star, and 'saurus', which is Greek for lizard. 

'Star' was a reoccurring word in Bowie's career – he created the alter-ego Ziggy Stardust, which contributed to his huge popularity in the 1970s, and named his final album 'Blackstar', which was released two days before his death in 2016.

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