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Ganymede Aurorae (STIS)

Ganymede Aurorae (STIS)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope observed a pair of auroral belts encircling the Jovian moon Ganymede. The belts were observed in ultraviolet light by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and are colored blue in this illustration. They are overlaid on a visible-light image of Ganymede taken by NASA's Galileo orbiter. The locations of the glowing aurorae are determined by the moon's magnetic field, and therefore provide a probe of the moon's interior, where the magnetic field is generated. The amount of rocking of the magnetic field, caused by its interaction with Jupiter's own immense magnetosphere, provides evidence that the moon has a subsurface ocean of saline water.

About the Object

  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    The semi-major axis of Jupiter's orbit about the Sun is 5.2 astronomical units (483 million miles or 778 million km). Ganymede orbits at a mean distance of 665,000 miles (1 million km) from Jupiter.

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.
    The image was created from Hubble data from the following proposal: 12244 PI: J. Saur (University of Cologne, Germany), P. Feldman and D. Strobel (JHU), K. Retherford (SwRI), M. McGrath (NASA/MSFC), and S. Duling (University of Cologne, Germany). The science team includes: J. Saur and S. Duling (University of Cologne, Germany), L. Roth (SwRI/University of Cologne, Germany), D. Strobel and P. Feldman (JHU), U. Christensen (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany), K. Retherford (SwRI), M. McGrath (NASA/MSFC), F. Musacchio, A. Wennmacher, and F. Neubauer (University of Cologne, Germany), and S. Simon (Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta), and O. Hartkorn (University of Cologne, Germany).
  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    HST>STIS
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Ganymede
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Jovian Moon: Jupiter has a diameter of roughly 88,789 miles (142,984 km) at the equator. Ganymede has a diameter of 3,270 miles (5,262 km).
  • Release Date
    March 12, 2015
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Hubble Observations Suggest Underground Ocean on Jupiter’s Largest Moon
    Read the release
  • Credits
    NASA, ESA, and J. Saur (University of Cologne, Germany); Ganymede Globe NASA, JPL, and the Galileo Project

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Compass and Scale
Compass and ScaleAn astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made.

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Compass and Scale Image for Ganymede

Compass and Scale Image for Ganymede

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Details

Last Updated
Feb 17, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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