Spider-like formation has scientists wondering what’s happening on one of Jupiter’s moons

Scientists believe an eye-catching feature on the surface of one of Jupiter’s moons could be a further clue that salty water lies below the satellite’s icy shell.

In a paper published this month in The Planetary Science Journal, researchers said a spider-shaped pattern spotted on the Jovian moon Europa may be the result of briny water rising to the surface.

A major candidate for life beyond Earth

One of nearly 100 moons known to orbit Jupiter - our solar system’s largest planet - Europa is coated in a layer of ice estimated at around 10 to 15 miles thick. Beneath the surface, however, the satellite is thought to hold a vast, Earth-like body of liquid saltwater - making it a prime target in the search for extraterrestrial life.

Europa is “one of the most promising places in our solar system to find present-day environments suitable for some form of life”, NASA says.

Since the 1970s, the U.S. state space agency has imaged Europa in a number of unmanned missions - including the Galileo Europa Mission, which sent a space probe into orbit around Jupiter over an eight-year period beginning in 1995.

The photos sent back by the Galileo spacecraft included images that showed a spider-shaped pattern in the middle of Europa’s Manannán crater.

Now, a U.S.-wide team of scientists led by Lauren Mc Keown, a physics professor at the University of Central Florida (UCF), has pointed to potential parallels between the Manannán formation and a similarly-shaped feature found on the surface of frozen bodies of water on Earth.

Like ‘lake stars’ on Earth

In The Planetary Science Journal, the scientists write: “We suggest that the feature [found on Europa] may originate from a process similar to that forming dendritic ‘lake stars;’ seasonal features found on frozen ponds and lakes on Earth.”

In an interview with the UCF website, Mc Keown explained: “Lake stars are radial, branching patterns that form when snow falls on frozen lakes, and the weight of the snow creates holes in the ice, allowing water to flow through the snow, melting it and spreading in a way that is energetically favorable.”

She added: “On Europa, we believe a subsurface brine reservoir could have erupted and spread through porous surface ice, producing a similar pattern."

Mc Keown and her team have named the Manannán formation ‘Damhán Alla’, which is the Irish-language term for ‘spider’.

“Significance of our research is really exciting”

The scientists say they are now waiting for “improved global-scale” images of Europa’s surface to be beamed back to Earth by the latest craft sent to snap the Jovian moon.

Launched in October 2024, Europa Clipper is scheduled to reach Jupiter in April 2030, and is slated to carry out a total of 49 fly-bys of Europa, capturing locations across the satellite in unprecedented detail.

If the Europa Clipper sends back images of similar, spider-like patterns, says Mc Keown’s team, “our understanding of lake stars in the context of Europan conditions may elucidate subsurface conditions and how the subsurface might be habitable."

“The significance of our research is really exciting,” Mc Keown concludes. “Surface features like these can tell us a lot about what’s happening beneath the ice.”

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