NASA’s Juno Mission has captured stunning images of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede.
Juno’s Ganymede Flyby has released a 50-second animation that provides an auditory as well as a visual glimpse at data collected by the mission.
According to Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, “This soundtrack is just wild enough to make you feel as if you were riding along as Juno sails past Ganymede for the first time in more than two decades.”
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“If you listen closely, you can hear the abrupt change to higher frequencies around the midpoint of the recording, which represents entry into a different region in Ganymede’s magnetosphere.”
“It is possible the change in the frequency shortly after closest approach is due to passing from the nightside to the dayside of Ganymede,” said William Kurth, lead co-investigator of the Waves instrument, who is based at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, in a statement.
NASA’s Galileo spacecraft flew by Ganymede in the 1990s and confirmed the presence of an interior ocean, also finding evidence for salty water perhaps from the salt known as magnesium sulfate.
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Ganymede, which with its diameter of about 3,300 miles (5,300 km), is the largest moon in the solar system and is bigger than the planet Mercury.
Ganymede boasts a lot of water, perhaps 25 times the volume of Earth’s oceans. Its oceans are estimated to be about 500 miles (800 km) deep.
Ganymede is one of five moons in the solar system thought to have oceans hidden below icy surfaces. Two other moons, Europa and Callisto, orbit the big gas planet Jupiter. The moons Titan and Enceladus circle the ringed gas planet Saturn.
(With inputs from agencies)