NASA confirms ocean on Jupiter moon, raising prospects for life

[Yahoo! News]

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By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., (Reuters) - Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed that the Jupiter-orbiting moon Ganymede has an ocean beneath its icy surface, raising the prospects for life, NASA said on Thursday. The finding resolves a mystery about the largest moon in the solar system after NASA’s now-defunct Galileo spacecraft provided hints that Ganymede has a subsurface ocean during exploration of Jupiter and its moons from 1995 to 2003. Like Earth, Ganymede has a liquid iron core that generates a magnetic field, though Ganymede’s field is embedded within Jupiter’s magnetic field. As Jupiter rotates, its magnetic field shifts, causing Ganymede’s aurora to rock.

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