Close up images of ‘spider webs’ on Mars show ‘dramatic evidence’ of water

Nasa’s Curiosity Mars Rover has taken some close up images of the Red Planet which look a little something like ‘spider webs’. The region of Mars photographed had only been previously seen from orbit but it seems it has some secrets to spill on whether Mars once hosted water. So, what’s going on? (Picture: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Did Mars have water?

Like the Earth, the Martian surface has also changed over the billions of years it has existed. The now very barren looking planet once had rivers, lakes and even possibly an ocean, Nasa says. But it's a mystery as to why the water eventually dried up, leading the planet to look like it does today (Picture: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

What do the pictures show?

Curiosity, a much beloved rover, shows evidence of ancient groundwater that crisscrosses low ridges. These seem to be arranged into what the geologists call a boxwork pattern, Nasa said. These are made up of mineral rocks which sometimes appear on the surface of the planet, and can span up 12 miles. From space, they look like they have been spun by giant spiders but they have never been studied up close (Picture: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

Nasa said: ‘By the time Curiosity’s current location formed, the long-lived lakes were gone in Gale Crater, the rover’s landing area, but water was still percolating under the surface­. The rover found dramatic evidence of that groundwater when it encountered crisscrossing low ridges. The bedrock below these ridges likely formed when groundwater trickling through the rock left behind minerals that accumulated in those cracks and fissures, hardening and becoming cementlike. Eons of sandblasting by Martian wind wore away the rock but not the minerals, revealing networks of resistant ridges within’ (Picture: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

So far, the ridges that Curiosity has seen look a little but like a crumbling curb, and also stretch over miles across Mount Sharp, a three-mile tall mountain with foothills the rover has been climbing since 2014. However, what’s more interesting is that the boxwork patterns haven’t been spotted anywhere else on the mountain, either by Curiosity or orbiters passing overhead (Picture: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada, said: ‘A big mystery is why the ridges were hardened into these big patterns and why only here. As we drive on, we’ll be studying the ridges and mineral cements to make sure our idea of how they formed is on target.’ The researchers observed the ridges have small fractures filled with the salty mineral calcium sulfate, left behind by groundwater, which Curiosity's deputy project scientist, Abigail Fraeman, said was a ‘really surprising’ discovery (Picture: Getty)

The researchers say that by studying the boxwork up close, they can learn more about Mars’ watery past and it could even reveal any oceans the red planet may have had. It could also help answer the question if Mars ever harboured life. Kirsten Siebach, a Curiosity mission scientist at Rice University in Houston who has been studying the area, previously said: ‘These ridges will include minerals that crystallized underground, where it would have been warmer, with salty liquid water flowing through. Early Earth microbes could have survived in a similar environment. That makes this an exciting place to explore’ (Picture: Getty)