Science. 2000 Sep 15;289(5486):1853a-4a. doi: 10.1126/science.289.5486.1853a.
Scientists studying the latest high-resolution photos of the martian south polar ice cap think they may have found additional clues to its ebb and flow. These hints of the planet's bizarre atmosphere come from a new class of dramatic-looking terrain features whose dark, multilimbed, vaguely radial designs have earned them the moniker "black spiders," and another group of dusky, spreading features called "dark fans." At a recent gathering here of Mars researchers, a planetary scientist proposed that the spiders might be subsurface gas channels, visible through an unusually transparent section of the martian ice.
科学家们正在研究火星南极冰盖的最新高分辨率照片，他们认为可能已经找到了更多有关其消长的线索。这些有关火星奇特大气的暗示来自一类新的地貌特征，这些地貌特征具有鲜明的多分支、模糊的放射状设计，被称为“黑蜘蛛”；另一组昏暗、蔓延的特征则被称为“暗扇形区”。在最近于这里举行的火星研究人员聚会上，一位行星科学家提出，这些蜘蛛可能是地下气体通道，通过火星冰的一个异常透明的部分可以看到。
