The search for habitable worlds continues to be at the forefront of scientists and we are getting more accurate and more frequent data. Now, according to data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, has an underground ocean of salt water and the amount of water is such that it even exceeds all the water that the Earth has on its surface. . The research has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research .
This finding represents a “significant milestone”, according to John Grunsfeld, deputy administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate: “In its 25 years in orbit, Hubble has made many scientific discoveries in the Solar System. A deep ocean under the icy crust of Ganymede opens up very interesting possibilities for finding life outside of Earth. "
Ganymede does not stand out for being only the largest moon Jupiter, it is also the only one with its own magnetic field as well as the largest in our entire solar system . The magnetic field causes the auroras to circulate through the regions of the north and south poles of the satellite; It has been precisely this movement that has provided clues about the existence of a large amount of salty water under its crust.
According to scientists' estimates, that great underground ocean would be about 100 kilometers deep (10 times deeper than Earth's oceans), and would lie about 150 kilometers below Ganymede's ice crust.
