On Christmas Eve in 2023, a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft captured what looks like a barcode etched into the rusty slopes of Mars.
The image, taken by ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, shows dark, finger-like trails streaking down the flanks of Apollinaris Mons, a vast extinct volcano near the Martian equator. Each stripe — some just a few yards wide, others hundreds across — traces the path of a dust avalanche, triggered when a meteoroid struck the surface, shaking loose fine grains that cascaded downslope, according to a ESA statement.
