The Juno spacecraft has recorded a radio signal from Jupiter’s satellite Ganymede, ABC4 reports, citing NASA spokesman Patrick Wiggins. The captured signal was a frequency between 10 and 40 MHz, which is known on Earth as Wi-Fi. The signal lasted for 5 seconds.
Scientists hastened to declare that this has nothing to do with extraterrestrial life. The trapped radio signal was created by electrons orbiting in Jupiter’s magnetic field. In physics, there is the concept of cyclotron maser instability, in which electrons vibrate at a lower speed than they rotate, and this leads to amplification of radio waves. A similar phenomenon on Earth leads to auroras.
Wiggins added that Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, was also able to capture the aurora with the Juno probe’s camera.
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