Science news this week: Spiders on Mars and an ancient Egyptian sword

Rarely do we get the opportunity to hum a classic David Bowie song while thumbing through the latest Science news, but this week we saw the return of spiders on Mars. No, they're not real arachnids scurrying across the Red Planet's surface — instead they're part of a geological feature known as araneiform terrain. These dark, crack-like structures form when carbon dioxide seasonally erupts from the planet's surface and resemble spiders scurrying across the terrain when viewed from a great height. And now, for the first time they have been recreated on Earth.

But these "spiders" are not the only thing we've had to keep an eye on from space: There is the new 'mini-moon' taking a short spin around our planet; the discovery that Earth may have once worn a Saturn-like ring; and the prospect of space trash leading us to intelligent aliens.

3,200-year-old ancient Egyptian barracks contains sword inscribed with 'Ramesses II'

Archaeologists in Egypt recently unearthed the 3,200-year-old remains of a military barracks containing a sword with hieroglyphs depicting the name of Ramesses II.

Remains of pottery containing fish bones were also found on the site, alongside multiple cow burials.

The bronze sword was found in a small room in the barracks, near a less-protected area where an enemy could infiltrate. This is an indication that this sword was intended for fighting and not just for show, Ahmed El Kharadly, an archaeologist with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities who led excavations at the site, told Live Science in an email.

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