Researchers from Trinity College Dublin, analyzing decades-old data from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, have proposed a compelling explanation for a strange, starburst scar on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. They believe the feature, named Damhán Alla (Irish for “spider”), formed when salty brine erupted through the ice crust, offering a tantalizing clue about subsurface water and the moon’s potential to host life.
In our solar system, few places hold as much fascination for astrobiologists as Europa, a frozen world with a vast, subsurface ocean hidden beneath its icy shell. The great question has always been: how can we glimpse what’s happening in that dark, alien sea? The answer, according to new research, might be written on the surface in delicate, spider-like patterns that resemble familiar earthly phenomena.
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The mystery centers on a unique feature within Europa’s Manannán crater, first spotted in images from the Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. Scientists have now given it a name—Damhán Alla, an Irish word meaning “spider” or “wall demon.” A team led by Lauren Mc Keown from Trinity College Dublin has published a study suggesting this branching, radial pattern is a frozen record of a watery outburst from below.
The key insight came from a terrestrial comparison. On Earth, beautiful radial patterns called “lake stars” form on frozen lakes when meltwater wells up through a hole in the ice and spreads out, melting the overlying snow in delicate, dendritic channels. The researchers propose that Europa’s Damhán Alla formed in a remarkably similar way, according to the Trinity College Dublin statement.
“The significance of our research is really exciting,” said lead author Lauren Mc Keown. “Surface features like these can tell us a lot about what’s happening beneath the ice.” The theory posits that a meteorite impact created the Manannán crater, fracturing Europa’s icy shell. This allowed salty, subsurface brine to be forced upward. In the moon’s extremely cold environment, this brine would have flowed briefly across the surface, etching its spider-web pattern before freezing solid for eternity.
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This interpretation is more than just geological curiosity; it has profound implications for the search for life. If correct, features like Damhán Alla could point to localized pockets of liquid water—brine pools—trapped within the ice shell itself, much closer to the surface than the global ocean far below. These shallower reservoirs could be more accessible and potentially habitable environments for microbial life.
“If we see more of them with Europa Clipper, they could point to local brine pools below the surface,” Mc Keown added, highlighting the importance of future missions. While the current analysis relies on decades-old Galileo imagery, NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in April 2030. Equipped with far more powerful cameras and sensors, it will search for similar features, potentially confirming this mechanism and mapping the distribution of these briny upwellings.
The research, which combined field observations, lab experiments, and computer modeling, illustrates a powerful principle in planetary science: using Earth as a guidebook to decipher alien landscapes. “Lake stars are really beautiful… It is wonderful to think that they may give us a glimpse into processes occurring on Europa and maybe even other icy ocean worlds in our solar system,” Mc Keown said.
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For now, the “wall demon” on Europa remains a frozen fossil of a fleeting watery event. But it stands as a promising sign that Europa’s icy crust is not a static, impermeable lid, but a dynamic interface where the hidden ocean below may occasionally—and beautifully—reveal itself.
