Poor Ganymede . Unlike its other Galilean moons – well , apart from Callisto – it does n’t get much tending . You ’ve got flashy , volcanic , paradoxicalIoon one deal , and ocean - hiding , wintry , potentially life - containingEuropaon the other , all direct up everyone ’s attention .
Thanks to a stunning newNature Communicationsstudy , though , it face like Ganymede is about to take the calcium light .
Turns out that a team , led by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences , have been listening in for some fourth dimension now via the Galileo space probe . They ’ve been assessing Ganymede’schorus wavesand observe out that the Sun Myung Moon ’s “ whistle ” is 1 million time more intense than would be expected around other moons and planet .
At this point , you ’re understandably asking how moon can , well , whistle , so leave me to excuse .
Although preponderantly a vacuity , space hold charged molecule , and when they interact with the charismatic fields of planets or headliner , they move about fairly sharpish . As noted byNASA , they often get violently jostle about byplasma waves – clumps of electron and ion – and in some instances , their question can be somewhat rhythmic .
That bear witness to be rather useful , as these motions occur as very low - frequency radio waves . Using some clever tech here on Earth , we can “ hear ” them .
Whistler mode waves ( WMWs ) , one type of particularly musical plasma undulation , make different “ noises ” depending on the type of plasma they are passing through . This imply that we can check blood plasma properties based on the euphony they make .
The more we know about this , the more we know about the major planet or ace ’s holding . At the same meter , they aid us in space travel : Earth return its own chorus waves , and the electron that it launches out into infinite can potentially damage spacecraft , which is useful to be mindful of .
This new bailiwick distinguish the detection of particularly strong WMWs in the neck of the woods of Jupiter ’s moons , in particular Ganymede . Europa , unable to resist a cameo , is also mention in the paper as having WMWs 100 time above the average level .
Although it ’s not entirely clear-cut why the WMWs for these two satellites are so powerful , it ’s distrust that it is partly because both ladder through the super hefty magnetic field of Jupiter .
Jupiter ’s charismatic airfield , which is 20,000 times strong than Earth ’s , is uncanny enough as it is . It ’s not generated by a convecting , liquid , atomic number 26 - rich outer pith , but by a rapidly rotating extremely compressed hydrogen nucleus that acts like a metallic element .
Its magnetized field line tendrils strive out to the orbits of both Ganymede and Europa , which provide the region with plenty of energetic particles .
Ganymede – the largest planet in the Solar System – has a potent magnetic field of its own . Europa also possesses one , but it’sfar weaker , suggest it ’s probably induced by the bm of salty water , not via ametallic corelike Ganymede ’s .
The source note that object without a magnetic field could achieve the same effect , but herculean magnetized fields create orotund traps of obstacle for particles streaming nearby . This results in the multiplication of stronger WMWs – something , among other aspects of the wave , that the ongoingJunomission will have a closer look at .
So there you have it : Ganymede ’s party trick is fundamentally some damn all right whistling .
Incidentally , Io ’s sulfurous irruption column do render the region with mickle of plasma to diddle with , but there ’s actually so much of it that conditions for generating waves are n’t really there . It ’s essentially prove too hard to perform the same magic illusion , which dish out it right for being such a showoff in the first place .
