NASA finds organic compounds seeping up from hidden ocean on Jupiter's icy moon Ganymede

NASA's Juno spacecraft has detected salts and organic compounds on the surface of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon.

During its 2021 flyby of Ganymede, Juno's JIRAM instrument detected salts such as hydrated sodium chloride, ammonium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and possibly even organic compounds known as aliphatic aldehydes. The discovery of these compounds and salts can help astronomers better understand how Ganymede formed and evolved and possibly shine light on the chemical composition of its subsurface ocean.

"We found the greatest abundance of salts and organics in the dark and bright terrains at latitudes protected by the magnetic field," said Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio."This suggests we are seeing the remnants of a deep ocean brine that reached the surface of this frozen world."

"Extensive water–rock interaction could achieve such a balance and would also be consistent with the presence of sodium salts as an independent indicator of aqueous alteration inside Ganymede," the authors wrote in a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy on Oct. 30.

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