"Ganymede's Internal Ocean Confirmed" Topic

It's been speculated, but now NASA has announced the evidence is clear; there is an under surface ocean on Jupiter's moon Ganymede (one of the first four non-terrestrial moons known to man, discovered and named by Galileo).

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Water, water everywhere--
But does a drop have life?

It's high time we found out.

I hope it turns out better than the expedition to Europa.

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link to Europa Report on Netflix.

Very cool.

Good ol' Hubble.

We need a Skipjack class nuke sub converted for space and undersea travel….designed by committee, let's see …postulate over runs, Congressional delays, corruption, accidents, substandard materials, rebuilds…mmmmm…aahh…oh, Jupiter would ignite into a star before this ever happened…

Interesting how the liquid water in Ganymede, Callisto and Titan exists within the ice and not just underneath it. This is created from friction of the ice sheets brought on by the "massaging" of Jupiter's tidal forces.

As far as life goes, we will need more than that. We would need an energy source AND a source for complex chemicals? Ganymede has a metallic core…..is it liquid also? Then wouldn't there be liquid water at the ice-rock interface? Lots of interesting questions will be coming up soon.

Ok this answered my one question.

From a conference call to the press:

Like Earth, Ganymede has a liquid iron core that generates a magnetic field, though Ganymede's field is embedded within Jupiter's magnetic field. That sets up an interesting dynamic with telltale visuals – twin bands of glowing aurora around Ganymede's northern and southern polar regions.

As Jupiter rotates, its magnetic field shifts, causing Ganymede's aurora to rock. Scientists measured the motion and found it fell short. Using computer models, they realized that a salty, electrically conductive ocean beneath the moon's surface was counteracting Jupiter's magnetic pull.

"Jupiter is like a lighthouse whose magnetic field changes with the rotation of the lighthouse. It influences the aurora," said geophysicist Joachim Saur, with the University of Cologne in Germany. "With the ocean, the rocking is significantly reduced."

Scientists ran more than 100 computer models to see if anything else could be having an impact on Ganymede's aurora. They also repeated the seven-hour, ultraviolet Hubble observations and analyzed data for both belts of aurora. "This gives us confidence in the measurement," Saur said.

So not exactly "foot on the ground" confirmation, but cool detective work for the computer guys nonetheless.

Now that's what I call impressive thinking! I never knew about the auroras on Ganymede. Very interesting.

Not only that but the water is electrically active. Therefore they know that it is saline.