NASACuriosity’s rover has taken surprising new photos A huge spider web zigzags across the surface of Mars. One of these images revealed a never-before-seen egg-like spheroid covering a vast structure. Scientists have a hard time explaining them.
Over the past eight months, Curiosity has Explore a series of interconnected rock ridgeson the slopes of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater, is called “Boxwork.” These ridges cover areas up to 12 miles (20 kilometers) in diameter and were formed billions of years ago when ancient Martian groundwater seeped beneath the planet’s surface. They were first discovered by an orbiter in 2006, but have remained largely unexplored until now.
This web-like structure is not to be confused with the infamous “Mars spiders,” a series of geological features that form when carbon dioxide turns into ice. sublimate beneath the surface of the red planet and Looks like swarming arachnids When viewed from above. (These fake spiders too recently reproduced on earththere was also a similar “devil on the wall”, Discovered on Jupiter’s moon Europa. )
NASA reveals Curiosity Photo of the first boxwork June 2025, just after reaching the rocky ridge. But on Monday (February 23), authorities released two more snapshots showing the structure in more detail.
One of these photos, taken on September 26 of last year, shows a ground-level view of a ridge 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) above the surface of Mars. But a second enlarged image taken on August 21 revealed that some of these bumps were covered in small, irregularly shaped lumps, or nodules, that had never been seen before.
These nodules bear a striking resemblance to small spheroids of the body. Mysterious “spider egg” on the rock surfacediscovered last year in Jezero Crater by NASA’s Perseverance spacecraft, but its origin is unknown. And researchers are struggling to explain exactly how the tiny box-shaped “eggs” formed.
“We still can’t fully explain why nodules appear where they exist.” Tina Seegerplanetary scientists leading Curiosity’s boxwork research at Rice University in Houston said in an article. statement. “Perhaps the ridge was first consolidated by minerals, and subsequent episodes of groundwater left nodules around it,” Seeger said. However, further work is needed to confirm whether this is the case.
However, although nodules and boxwork have an eerie biological appearance, there is no suggestion that they are in any direct relationship. extraterrestrial life form.
spider web on mars
The boxwork consists of intersecting ridges of mineral-rich rock scattered across the surface of Mars. Similar but smaller structures are also found on Earth, primarily in caves, formed when calcite-rich water flows between rocks and eventually erodes them. stalagmites and stalactites According to the format, National Speleological Society.
But Mars’ box structure was shaped by the fierce winds that blow across the planet’s surface. “The bedrock beneath these ridges was likely formed when groundwater trickled through the rocks, leaving behind minerals that accumulated in cracks and crevices, where they hardened and became cement-like,” NASA representatives said. I wrote it before. “Years of sandblasting by Martian winds wore away the rocks but not the minerals, revealing a network of internal resistant ridges.”
The research team is particularly interested in Mt. Sharp’s boxwork patch. That’s because it was formed in isolation, perched surprisingly high on the side of a mountain, and has hints at the planet’s mysterious watery past.
“Seeing boxwork this high up on the mountain suggests that the water table was quite high,” Seeger said. This suggests the water in the area may have “lasted much longer than we thought,” she added.
The researchers hope that further investigation will also reveal the specific conditions that formed these structures, and whether conditions were favorable for potential ancient Martian microbes.
“These ridges would contain minerals that crystallized underground, where salty liquid water would have flowed and been warmer.” Kirsten SeebachHe is a Curiosity Mission Scientist at Rice University and also conducts research in this field. said before. “Early Earth microbes may have been able to survive in similar environments, which is why this is such an interesting place to explore.”
uneven terrain
The latest phase of Curiosity’s mission is yielding fascinating results, but it’s also proving to be one of the most difficult.
This boxwork is perhaps the most difficult terrain the car-sized robot has had to traverse since landing in Gale Crater in 2012. The rover must balance along the ridges “like a highway” and avoid sliding “into the potholes” between them. Ashley StroupSystems engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California said in a statement.
The task of controlling rovers is also becoming increasingly difficult. Because of the gaping hole One of the first robot wheels discovered at the end of 2024.
“There’s always a solution,” Stroup said. “Just try a different path.”