A striking satellite image of Western Australia’s Spider Crater is drawing attention for a remarkable reason: its rugged ridges resemble a giant spider sprawled across the landscape. The formation lies in the remote Kimberley region and is not a recent scar. It is the deeply eroded remnant of an ancient impact structure, shaped by a collision with a space rock hundreds of millions of years ago and transformed by geological processes ever since.
NASA’s Earth Observatory reported that the Operational Land Imager aboard the NASA-USGS Landsat 9 satellite captured a new view of the feature on September 20, 2026. The full structure measures about 13 kilometres by 11 kilometres, while its distinctive spider-like central portion spans roughly four kilometres. The image offers a dramatic view from orbit, but the explanation for the pattern comes from geological evidence gathered on the ground as well as satellite observations.
Why the crater looks like a giant spider
Spider Crater’s unusual appearance comes from a central uplift and a series of pale ridges radiating outward. When a large meteorite strikes a planet, the impact releases an enormous amount of energy. Rock is compressed, fractured and displaced, and the floor of a sufficiently large crater can rebound after the initial shock, raising a central area.
Geologists believe the spider-like pattern at this site represents the remnant of that central uplift. The ridges that resemble legs are made of sandstone layers that have resisted erosion better than the surrounding material. Over immense spans of time, wind, water and other weathering processes removed softer rock, leaving the more resistant bands standing out across the landscape.
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The shape is therefore not a giant animal-like structure carved deliberately into the ground, nor is it the original crater preserved exactly as it formed. It is a geological pattern revealed through the uneven wearing away of rock. From above, the remaining ridges create a striking resemblance to a spider, which gives the formation its memorable name.
A collision hundreds of millions of years ago
The exact age of Spider Crater remains uncertain. Estimates based on rocks in the region place the impact broadly between about 900 million and 600 million years ago. That range reaches back into the late Precambrian, long before dinosaurs, mammals or the landscapes familiar today existed.
At that time, Earth was a very different world. Continents were arranged differently, ecosystems were undergoing major changes, and complex animal life had not yet diversified in the way it would later. The impact that formed Spider Crater occurred so long ago that most of the original landform has since been altered by erosion and geological change.
Scientists cannot simply look at the present-day shape and read off a precise impact date. The visible structure has been modified over geological time, and dating an impact can require interpreting surrounding rock layers, mineral evidence and the history of the region. For that reason, the age is described as an estimate rather than a precisely established moment in Earth’s history.
The evidence that solved a geological mystery
For decades, the unusual formation puzzled researchers. Its shape alone did not make its origin obvious. Circular and irregular landforms can be created by different geological processes, including volcanic activity, tectonic forces and long periods of erosion. A convincing explanation required evidence that could distinguish an impact from other possibilities.
An important clue came from shatter cones discovered in the rocks. These cone-shaped features contain distinctive fracture patterns associated with the intense shock waves generated by high-energy impacts. They are among the geological signs that help scientists identify ancient impact structures even when much of the original crater has disappeared.
Researchers have also studied shocked minerals, including quartz and zircon, and the deformation of rock layers. Such evidence helps build a case that the structure formed under extreme pressure rather than through ordinary surface processes. No single striking satellite photograph establishes the full story on its own. The interpretation is strengthened by combining the shape seen from orbit with the physical signatures preserved in the rocks.
What satellites add to the discovery
Satellites make it possible to study remote landscapes that are difficult to survey continuously from the ground. Instruments such as Landsat 9’s Operational Land Imager collect reflected light across multiple wavelength bands, helping scientists distinguish geological units, trace patterns and compare changes across large areas.
For a feature such as Spider Crater, an orbital view reveals the relationships between the central uplift, surrounding terrain and radiating ridges. The broad perspective can make a pattern obvious that is difficult to appreciate from a single ground-level viewpoint. Satellite imagery also allows researchers to place a feature in its regional geological context and identify areas that may deserve closer field investigation.
However, a satellite image is not a complete geological diagnosis. It records the surface as seen by a particular instrument under particular conditions. Scientists still need field observations, rock samples, mapping and analysis to test competing explanations. The most reliable interpretation emerges when the view from space agrees with evidence collected on Earth.
Why the ridges survived
Erosion does not affect every rock equally. Some layers are harder, more tightly cemented or otherwise more resistant to weathering than the materials around them. Over millions of years, softer rocks can be worn down while tougher layers remain as ridges. This process can transform an initially complex geological structure into a pattern of raised lines and valleys.
At Spider Crater, the sandstone ridges have endured while surrounding rock has eroded more readily. Their present appearance reflects both the original impact-related structure and the long geological history that followed. The spider-like outline is thus a record of two broad forces: the violent event that deformed the rocks and the gradual erosion that exposed the pattern.
This combination is common in the study of ancient landscapes. A crater may lose much of its original bowl-shaped form, yet preserve clues in fractured rocks, altered minerals, circular structures or resistant ridges. Geologists piece together these clues to reconstruct events that happened long before humans existed.
Why impact craters matter to planetary science
Impact craters are more than dramatic scars. They help scientists understand the history of collisions between Earth and objects travelling through space. On worlds with little erosion or tectonic activity, impact craters can remain visible for billions of years. On Earth, weather, flowing water, volcanism, tectonic movement and life continually reshape the surface, making old impact structures harder to recognise.
Studying Earth’s surviving craters gives researchers a way to compare geological processes across the Solar System. The physics of a high-speed impact can be investigated through rocks and structures on Earth, then compared with features observed on the Moon, Mars and other planetary bodies. This helps scientists interpret remote landscapes where direct sampling may be impossible or extremely limited.
Impact structures can also preserve information about the energy of a collision, the properties of the target rocks and the subsequent history of a region. Their minerals and fractures can record pressure conditions far beyond those associated with ordinary surface processes. Each well-studied structure adds another piece to the picture of how impacts have shaped planetary surfaces.
A remarkable view, with an important scientific caveat
The spider resemblance makes the latest image instantly memorable, but the central scientific story is the long history recorded in the rocks. Spider Crater is an ancient impact structure, its distinctive ridges are interpreted as part of a central uplift, and erosion has exposed sandstone that weathered differently from the surrounding material. The precise date of the impact remains uncertain.
The recent Landsat 9 image is a new view of a known geological feature, not evidence that the crater itself has suddenly appeared or that scientists have discovered a fresh impact. Its value lies in making the shape and scale of the formation clear to a broad audience and renewing interest in a site that preserves clues to Earth’s distant past.
Conclusion
Australia’s Spider Crater demonstrates how an event from deep time can remain visible in an unexpected form. A meteorite impact deformed the rocks, a central uplift created the structure from which the spider-like pattern emerged, and hundreds of millions of years of erosion exposed ridges that now stand out from space. NASA’s latest satellite view brings that geological story into focus, while field evidence such as shatter cones and shocked minerals supports the impact explanation.
The formation is a reminder that Earth’s landscape is an archive of both sudden catastrophes and slow change. What looks like a giant spider from orbit is, in reality, a natural record of a cosmic collision and the immense power of geological time.
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