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Judi Lynn

(160,217 posts)
Fri Jul 24, 2020, 04:08 AM Jul 2020

Juno Delivers First Images of The North Pole of Ganymede, Where It Rains Plasma


MICHELLE STARR 24 JULY 2020



It's been busily orbiting and observing Jupiter and its moons for four years now, but the scientific spacecraft Juno still has some surprises to share. For the first time, it has imaged the north pole of one of the oddest objects in the Solar System, Jupiter's moon Ganymede.

There, the constant rain of plasma from Jupiter's magnetosphere has dramatically altered the moon's icy surface, the new images reveal.

Ganymede is pretty amazing, actually. It's the largest and most massive moon in the entire Solar System. At 5,268 kilometres (3,273 miles) across, it beats out the entire dwarf planet category in size, even clocking in larger than Mercury (but not more massive - Mercury is dense. It's like a planet fruit cake).

It consists of water ice and silicate rock, with a frozen shell wrapped around a liquid ocean, wrapped around a liquid iron core. This core is thought to give Ganymede another point of distinction - it's the only moon in the Solar System with its own magnetosphere, generated by convection in the core.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/these-are-the-first-images-of-the-north-pole-of-jovian-moon-ganymede-where-it-rains-plasma
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Juno Delivers First Images of The North Pole of Ganymede, Where It Rains Plasma (Original Post) Judi Lynn Jul 2020 OP
Juno Jupiter probe finds glass-like ice on Ganymede's north pole Judi Lynn Jul 2020 #1

Judi Lynn

(160,217 posts)
1. Juno Jupiter probe finds glass-like ice on Ganymede's north pole
Fri Jul 24, 2020, 04:11 AM
Jul 2020

By David Szondy
July 23, 2020


NASA has released the first images taken by its Juno deep-space probe of the north pole of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede. Captured on December 26, 2019, the infrared images from the spacecraft's Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument show that the Ganymedean polar region contains a glass-like form of ice.

On many fronts, Ganymede is an outlier as far as moons go. One of the four Galilean Moons, which are the largest of Jupiter's 79 moons, Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system. In fact, it's the ninth-largest object in the solar system and is larger even than the planet Mercury.

Ganymede is also the only moon with its own magnetic field, which is probably generated by the effect of the Jovian tides on Ganymede's interior. According to NASA, this field acts like that of the Earth, where the lines of magnetic force act as a conduit for charged particles from the Sun, or plasma, which forms the famous auroras seen in the polar regions. However, since Ganymede has no atmosphere, these particles can bombard the ice that makes up most of the surface of the giant moon.

Juno's JIRAM instrument has now shed some light on the effect these particles have on the ice. JIRAM was made to capture the infrared light coming from deep inside Jupiter to a depth of 30 to 45 mi (50 to 70 km). However, NASA says that the instrument can also be used to examine the Galilean moons Ganymede, Io, Europe, and Callisto.

More:
https://newatlas.com/space/juno-jupiter-probe-glass-like-ice-ganymede-north-pole/
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