Post

Paul Byrne
@theplanetaryguy.com

This is Ganymede—the largest satellite in the Solar System. It orbits Jupiter, it's bigger than Mercury, and it has a subsurface ocean. The average ocean depth on Earth is 3.7 km. The ocean within Ganymede is as much as NINE HUNDRED km deep.

84 reposts698 likes

Paul Byrne
@theplanetaryguy.com

The exact makeup of that ocean is uncertain, and it may have a lower portion of high-pressure ice rather than liquid. There's even a model that suggests Ganymede has several *layers* of ice and water all sandwiched together. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill (@kevinmgill.bsky.social)

hamham
@hamham6411.bsky.social

What I got from it. I was aware several kinds of ice exist, but that they can all occur next to each other, naturally, due to how deep an exoplanetary ocean is, is mind-blowing.

Seth Lukas Hynes
@sethhyneswriter.bsky.social

Indeed, Ganymede is, I think, the only known moon with a magnetosphere. Titan, the second-largest moon in the solar system (also larger than Mercury) and the largest moon of Saturn, is the only moon in our solar system with a thick atmosphere. Other moons have thin or nonexistent atmospheres.

Paragon of Light
@thedevilmaysigh.bsky.social

It is amazing that you can see where it has been struck and even determine when. The surface is churning because they inside is spinning generating heat and forming new ice. There aren’t permanent craters like the ones you find on solid satellites.

American Patriot 🇺🇸
@navypatriot.bsky.social

Thanks for that nugget! I have missing time from 1974 and through the years I have had flashbacks of that event and the message given to me by Them. They are the watchers of many planets besides Earth. They have been watching Our nuclear progress they are concerned for Our Planet & Our Future.