Under the ice crust of Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter, is a salty ocean deep even at 100 km. This discovery could change our approach to the search for extraterrestrial life.
Ganymede is the largest moon of Jupiter, not only, but also the entire solar system. The only one with its own dipole magnetic field, and because of the proximity of Jupiter is the planet’s magnetic field. This contributes to the formation of auroras around the north and south poles of Ganymede. Auroras are in constant motion, and thus was able to determine that the crust of the moon has large quantities of salt water.
team of German scientists from the University of Cologne under the direction of Joachim Saura’s idea to study the structure of Ganymede to use the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists calculated the expected deviation of auroras, if underwater ocean actually existed. Salt water conducts electricity, which generates a magnetic field. The expected deviation of 2 degrees. This also observed on Ganymede. If the crust of ice there was no water, the deviation would be worth approx. 6 degrees.
Scientists estimate that 150 km beneath the ice Ganymede is deep at least 100 km ocean. It is thus 10 times deeper than Earth’s water bodies. Lunar ocean has a maximum depth of 330 km. Examining the subsurface ocean is one of the main tasks JUICE probe, which arrives on Ganymede in 2030.
The first suspicion of the existence of water on Ganymede were born in the 70s of last century. Past measurements, however, were too short to unequivocally determine the validity of the hypothesis. Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope are conducted in the ultraviolet and unambiguously confirm that the water under the ice Ganymede there.
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