Moon of Jupiter has a larger ocean than land – The Economist

Observations reported by Hubble Space Telescope say one of Jupiter’s moons is no greater than all the oceans of the earth together underwater ocean. NASA believes that at some point that ocean may have been in contact with the surface.

Observations reported by Hubble Space Telescope claim that one of the Jupiter’s moons is no greater than all the oceans of the earth together underwater ocean. NASA believes that at some point that ocean may have been in contact with the surface.

Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter, has an underground saltwater ocean under a layer of ice that is larger than all Earth’s oceans combined, according to remarks released Thursday thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope.

The discovery of liquid water expands to new research addresses the existence of extraterrestrial life in the solar system, US space agency NASA, responsible for this observation.

said “We believe that in the distant past, this ocean could have been in contact with the surface of the moon,” said the director of the division of science planetary NASA, Jim Green, in a press conference.

According to scientists, this ocean has a depth of one hundred kilometers, ten times that of Earth, and is buried under a crust 150 km consisting mainly of ice.

Since the ’70s, planetary scientists have suspected that Ganymede –descubierta in 1610 by Galileo– could have an ocean.

The Galileo probe NASA studying Jupiter and its moons for eight years, had made a flyby of Ganymede and approach to detect a magnetic field in 2002, which was an indication confirming the hypothesis of the existence of an ocean.

These new observations with the Hubble from ultraviolet allowed to detect and study the aurora borealis of the polar regions of Ganymede and the Earth, are caused by magnetic fields.

Ganymede is also under the influence of the magnetic field of Jupiter which is very close. Each time the magnetic field it changes, the aurora borealis Ganymede also change.

It was through observation of the movement of the aurora borealis that scientists could determine the existence of a great ocean of water salt under the bark, which affects the magnetic field of the moon.

Because salt water conducts electricity, the motion of the ocean influences the magnetic field.

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