Azerbaijan National Academy of Science

A NASA spacecraft has captured an incredibly close-up image of what is being described as ‘spiders’ on the surface of Mars.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this image, which shows deep troughs that have formed a starburst-like pattern on the red planet.

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Orbiter captured an area about one kilometre in total.

The image was taken at 4.56pm (local Mars time) and the surface is lit up from the west with a solar angle of 78 degrees, meaning the sun was about 12 degrees above the horizon.

NASA said the troughs were formed as mars going into the season of Spring, and its carbon dioxide ice has eroded to unveil “beautiful terrains”.

“The troughs are believed to be formed by gas flowing beneath the seasonal ice to openings where the gas escapes, carrying along dust from the surface below

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