Planet Mars: Isolated Araneiform Topography | NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Planet Mars: Isolated Araneiform Topography | NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Have you ever found that to describe something you had to go to the dictionary and search for just the right word?

The South Polar terrain of Mars is so full of unearthly features that we had to visit Mr. Webster to find a suitable term. “Araneiform” means “spider-like.” These are channels that are carved in the surface by carbon dioxide gas. We do not have this process on Earth.

The channels are somewhat radially organized and widen and deepen as they converge. In the past we have just referred to them as “spiders.” “Isolated araneiform topography” means that our features look like spiders that are not in contact with each other.

Image cutout is less than 1 km (under 1 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 244 km (152 mi).

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument, that was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

“For 17 years, MRO has been revealing Mars to us as no one had seen it before,” said the mission’s project scientist, Rich Zurek of JPL.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Release Date: Jan. 10, 2024

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