NASA ’s Juno is studying Jupiter like no other commission before , peer through its cloud layers and delivering breathtaking images of the satellite . Now it has returned the first trope of Ganymede ’s north perch .
Ganymede is not only the largest moon in the Solar System , but it is also the only one with its own charismatic field and a sub - surface ocean ( like fellow Galilean lunar month , Europa ) with more urine than all of Earth ’s control surface water combined .
The interaction between its aerofoil ice and magnetic field was one of the reasons NASA prefer to conduct these watching . Plasma from Jupiter ’s tremendous magnetic field travel to the moonshine , whereby the magnetised domain lines bring the charge particle towards the rod . On Earth , we get aurorae when those particles thrash into the atmosphere , but Ganymede has no meaning atmosphere . Instead , those particles hit the icy open .
As honor by Juno ’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper ( JIRAM ) , the blood plasma alter the ice . On the equator , the ice is in a crystalline structure . At the pole , the ice is amorphous and the constant bombing of plasma alters how the weewee molecules in the chicken feed behave with respect to one another .
" The JIRAM datum show the ice at and surrounding Ganymede ’s north perch has been modified by the hurriedness of plasma , " Alessandro Mura , a Juno atomic number 27 - investigator at the National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome , pronounce in astatement . " It is a phenomenon that we have been able to see about for the first time with Juno because we are able to see the north pole in its entirety . "
JIRAM ’s main line is to examine the infrared emanation from Jupiter ’s weather condition level , below its swirling cloud cover . However , researchers have also used the instrument for more than just that .
" These datum are another example of the great scientific discipline Juno is capable of when observing the Moon of Jupiter , " said Giuseppe Sindoni , syllabus manager of the JIRAM instrument for the Italian Space Agency .
The image were collected on December 26 , 2019 , at about 100,000 kilometers ( 62,000 mile ) from the airfoil of the Moon . Juno is expected to continue work for another year . On July 30 , 2021 , the spacecraft will be deorbited into Jupiter to rid of the risk of contaminating the crank moon that circumvent the major planet .
This wo n’t be the last we hear about Ganymede this X . The European Space Agency is planning to launch succus ( JUpiter ICy moons Explorer ) in 2022 , which will explore Ganymede , Europa , and Callisto from 2029 .
