Huge saltwater ocean found on Jupiter`s moon Ganymede

It has turned out that Jupiter’s moon “Ganymede” has a vast subterranean ocean. As the fact there is a deep ocean in the solar system is confirmed, the expectation for the possibility of extraterrestrial life is rising.

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on Thursday that the beneath a thick crust of ice on Ganymede’s surface has more water than earth.

Using a Hubble Space Telescope floating in space, the NASA made a comprehensive analysis on space photos of Ganymede. The Ganymede is the only satellite in the solar system where magnetic field is observed, which causes an aurora as earth does. NASA’s analysis on the photos of aurora has revealed that there is an assistant magnetic field, which only exists when there is salty water.

A moon that orbits Jupiter, Ganymede is as big as the half size of the earth. It was analyzed that the ocean found this time is as deep as 97 kilometers, about 10 times deeper than that of the earth and hidden under the thick crust of ice (approx. 153 kilometers). NASA also said that the ocean contains 5 grams of salt per liter and the salt concentration could be over 10 times thicker at the point where the depth is shallower.

The founding came at a time when the studies on asteroids and moons in the solar system have been expedited as the technology for space observation has developed. On Wednesday, a day before the discovery of ocean in Ganymede, an international joint study team published its founding on the British journal Nature that there is hot water surging from Saturn’s moon “Enceladus.” This is the first time that activities of a hot spring have been detected in a place other than the earth.