The Ganymede satellite has an iron core covered by a layer of rock covered with a thick layer of ice. It is possible that there is an ocean beneath the surface and astronomers found evidence of a thin oxygen atmosphere on the moon in 1996 using the Hubble Space Telescope.
NOTIF.ID, TECHNO – The United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the first time in more than 20 years will image the Ganymede satellite orbiting the planet Jupiter, on Monday, July 7, 2021. It is known that Genymade is the largest satellite in the Milky Way Galaxy.
The mission will be run by NASA’s Juno probe, which has been observing Jupiter and its moons since July 2016. Now, Juno is within 645 miles (1,038 kilometers) of Ganymede’s surface.
It is known, Juno is the closest spacecraft to the moon since the Galileo spacecraft made its approach in May 2000. NASA said the Ganymede satellite has a width of 3,270 miles (5,262.4 kilometers), this giant moon is larger than the planet Mercury.
During the mission, the camera on board Juno will capture images of Ganymede while other instruments can collect data that helps scientists learn more about the moon’s composition, including its icy shell.
Juno principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Scott Bolton, said in a statement that the Mosaic (left) and geological map of Ganymede were created using images from NASA’s Voyager and Galileo missions.
“Juno brought a set of sensitive instruments that were able to see Ganymede in a way that had never been done before,” he said.
“By flying so close, we will be bringing exploration of Ganymede into the 21st century, both complementing future missions with our unique sensors and helping prepare for the next generation of missions to the Jovian system — NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) JUpiter ICy moons mission. Explorer (JUICE).” he added.
For information, the satellite is named for the cupbearer of the ancient Greek gods. In addition to being the largest natural satellite in our solar system, Ganymede is also the only moon that has a magnetic field. This causes the aurora to shine around the north and south poles of the moon.
The Ganymede satellite has an iron core covered by a layer of rock covered with a thick layer of ice. It is possible that there is an ocean beneath the surface and astronomers found evidence of a thin oxygen atmosphere on the moon in 1996 using the Hubble Space Telescope. This atmosphere is too thin to support life.
Bolton said bright areas adorn the surface of the moon. These mountains look like scars, showing the dramatic changes during Ganymede’s history.
“The Ganymede ice shell has some light and dark areas, suggesting that some areas may be pure ice while other areas contain dirty ice,” Bolton said.
The Juno Microwave Radiometer “will provide the first in-depth investigation of how the composition and structure of ice varies with depth, leading to a better understanding of how ice shells form and the ongoing processes that reappear on the ice over time.” he added.
ESA’s JUICE mission, which will be the first spacecraft to orbit a moon other than Earth when it arrives in 2032, will also study Ganymede’s ice shell.
On Monday, Juno will use three cameras, including its navigation camera, to capture as much as possible during the flight, including the highly energetic radiation around Ganymede.
Flyby will be fast, so there will be no time to collect a lot of pictures. But what is collected during this cross -flight can be used compared to that taken by the Voyager and Galileo missions.
“Things usually happen pretty quickly in the world of flybys, and we have two strikes in a row next week. So literally every second counts,” said Matt Johnson, Juno mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement.
“On Monday, we will race past Ganymede at almost 12 miles per second (19 kilometers per second). Less than 24 hours later we made our 33rd science leap from Jupiter — screaming low above the cloud tops, at about 36 miles per second (58 kilometers per second). It’s going to be a wild ride.” close Bolton.
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