Jupiter Archives

An artist's rendering of Europa and Jupiter based on images sent by visiting spacecraft. Europa is the closest orbiting of the three Jupiter’s large ‘Galilean’ moons to be visited by Juice – any human astronaut that lands there would receive a lethal radiation dose on a timescale of hours. And spacecraft electronics are almost as susceptible to radiation as human biology. CREDIT NASA/JPL-Caltech

Europa, Meteorites & Asteroids, Origin & Evolution of Life, Panspermia, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Earth As A Potential Source Of Llife For Europa’s Subsurface Ocean

by Keith CowingJune 22, 2026June 21, 2026

The paper discusses the possibility of dust particles containing living bacteria ejected from Earth reaching Europa and landing on its surface.

This artist's impression shows radar waves from the NASA Goldstone Solar System Radar pinging one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa. The radar waves penetrate Europa’s icy surface before bouncing back to be collected by the NSF Green Bank Telescope on Earth. Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/P.Vosteen

Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Journal articles, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Radar Echoes From Europa Reveal Secrets Beneath the Ice

by Keith CowingJune 18, 2026June 18, 2026

A team of scientists has used NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar and the U.S. National Science Foundation Green Bank Telescope (NSF GBT) to carry out the most extensive radar study […]

An artist's impression of a disk of gas and dust formed during the birth of the sun. Credit: NASA/FUSE/Lynette Cook

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Mars, Mercury, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release, Venus

New Experiments And Modeling On Iron Meteorites Provide Insight Into Young Solar System And Earth’s Building Blocks

by Keith CowingJune 4, 2026June 4, 2026

Habitable planets require life-essential elements, like nitrogen and phosphorus. Understanding how those elements ended up in a planetary body can give insight into the formation of the solar system and […]

This artist’s illustration shows the magnetic activity around a hot Jupiter exoplanet. Hot Jupiters have one side that is always facing their host star and is scorching hot, whereas the other side is extremely cold. This steep temperature difference creates fast winds that blow from the day side to the night side. The planet’s magnetic field, shown here with blue lines, can slow these winds down. Credit International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Garlick

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Habitable Zones, Magnetic Fields, Electromagnetism, bioelectricity,, Press Release

Strange Winds Reveal Strongest Hints Yet Of Magnetic Activity In Exoplanets

by Keith CowingJune 3, 2026June 3, 2026

By measuring the strength of the invisible magnetic fields of seven ultra-hot Jupiters, astronomers have taken a major step toward understanding planets beyond our Solar System. A new study published […]

A northern polar projection of Jupiter indicating the latitude and longitude ranges adopted for coaddition of individual spectra. The circumference latitude is 40◦ (planetocentric), enclosed concentric circles are spaced by 4◦ in latitude. The magenta line represents the statistical mean position of the auroral oval (Bonfond et al., 2017). Spatial bins in black represent regions that do not overlap in latitude with the auroral oval, blue and red spatial bins represents areas outside and inside the auroral oval, respectively. TEXES achieves diffraction-limited spatial resolutions of 0.7” to 1.4” over the wavelength range adopted in this study, which corresponds to a latitude-longitude footprint of 5-10◦ at 60◦N. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Status Report

Detection Of Propadiene (CH2CCH2), Propene (C3H6) And Non-detection Of Propane (C3H8) In Jupiter’s Northern Polar Stratosphere

by Keith CowingMay 25, 2026May 25, 2026

We report the first detection of stratospheric propadiene (CH2CCH2) and propene (C3H6) at Jupiter’s mid-to-high northern latitudes using IRTF-TEXES measurements recorded on March 5-6, 2025.

Astrogeology, Callisto, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Press Release

Ganymede Might Still Be Forming Its Metal Core Today

by Keith CowingMay 18, 2026May 18, 2026

Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system; at over 3,200 miles across, it is larger than the planet Mercury. It is also the only moon with […]

Numerical ocean-induction setup for Ganymede in a deep-ocean scenario with REM = 1.77 . Ganymede's internal structure is depicted, featuring the ice crust, the deep ocean with its simulated zonal flow, the internal ice layer, the silicate mantle, and the metallic core. Yellow tubes visualize the magnetic field lines. The bottom-right panel shows how magnetic field lines are sheared by the zonal (east–west) jet flow in the ocean (blue/red denote westward/eastward jets, respectively), thereby reflecting the secondary magnetic field induced by such dynamics. -- Geophysical Research Letters

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Jupiter, Magnetic Fields, Electromagnetism, bioelectricity,, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Motional Induction in Ganymede’s Ocean

by Keith CowingMay 10, 2026May 11, 2026

We investigate the magnetic signature of oceanic circulation in Ganymede’s subsurface ocean using kinematic induction modeling. Our approach couples zonal jet flows from rotating thermal convection simulations with magnetic field […]

Titan is an abode of NH3. (A) Titan captured by the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem. The thick atmosphere of Titan is visible by a haze across the surface and a lack of surface details. Saturn’s other moon, Tethys, is observed behind Titan. Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute. (B) False-colour mosaic of Titan obtained by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer of Cassini. Colours correspond to atmospheric (red) and surface features (green and blue). The inset image indicates the possible occurrence of a cryovolcano on the surface. Cryovolcanic slurries of water, NH3, and methanol have been tentatively observed on the surface. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Saturn, Status Report, Titan

Ammonia As A Parameter Shaping Habitability On Icy Moons

by Keith CowingMay 6, 2026May 6, 2026

The search for life now extends beyond the traditional habitable zone to include the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. These moons feature ice-covered surfaces overlying substantial oceans formed primarily […]

O+2 density at Ganymede’s surface, modeled from the chemical equilibrium between ionization and recombination of O2, using the electron-impact ionization rates from Figure 2c. Photoionization is included in the sunlight region, which is shown by the terminator in orange. White numbers show modeled density values in cm−3 . For comparison, the red numbers show electron densities detected by Galileo (G8) and Juno radio occultation observations under the assumption of a uniform ionosphere (Kliore, 1998; Buccino et al., 2022). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report

Constraining Electron-Impact Ionization of O2 Through UV Aurora Observations at Ganymede

by Keith CowingApril 16, 2026April 16, 2026

While photoionization rates of Ganymede‘s O2 dominated atmosphere are well constrained, the contribution of electron-impact ionization is rather uncertain.

Artist’s impression of the simulations conducted in this research. Jupiter (lower left) has a strong magnetic field which creates a cavity in its circumplanetary disk. Saturn (upper right) lacks a strong magnetic field so its circumplanetary disk evolves without a cavity. Credit: Yuri I. Fujii/L-INSIGHT [Kyoto University], Illustrator: Shinichiro Kinoshita

Astrogeology, Callisto, Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede, Gas Giants, Icy Worlds, Io, Jupiter, Magnetic Fields, Electromagnetism, bioelectricity,, Press Release, Rhea, Saturn, Titan, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

How Jupiter Cultivated More Large Moons Than Saturn

by Keith CowingApril 8, 2026April 8, 2026

The two largest planets in our Solar System, Jupiter and Saturn, also have the largest satellite systems, or the most moons. At present, Jupiter’s reported moon count stands at more […]