University of Cologne use Ganymede’s Aurora to find Underground Salty Ocean – How Lenz’s Law causes rocking Aurora from Diamagnetic Salt Water

Looks like there may be life out there in the Universe after all!

Even better, it doesn’t have to conform to the criteria as suggested by the ESI (Earth Similarity Index) as laid out in my blog article entitled “Dr. Robert Wittenmyer Team discovers Gliese 832 c – Supersize my Exoplanet Please with a Serving of Super-Venus”.

I am of course referring to the recent discovery by a team of scientists led by Joachim Saur of the University of Cologne in Germany  that suggests that  a vast ocean of Liquid Water lies below the surface of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede as reported in the article “NASA’s Hubble Observations Suggest Underground Ocean on Jupiter's Largest Moon”, published March 12, 2015, NASA.

The team of scientists led by Joachim Saur of the University of Cologne in Germany based their hypothesis about liquid water existing below the surface of Ganymede on early models of the moon or minor planet.

These models from the 1970's were supported by NASA's Galileo mission, but the measurements weren't accurate enough to determine if there was indeed a subterranean ocean on Ganymede.

Based on their readings, they determined that Ganymede's ocean is 100 km (60 miles) and is buried under a 150 km (95 mile) crust made mostly of ice.

With those dimensions, this makes Ganymede's underground oceans, reminiscent of the underground water caverns in the Movie Dune, an adaptation of Frank Herbert Dune series of books, more than ten (10) times deeper that Earth's oceans.

So how exactly did they determine this based on observations using the Hubble Telescope? With a little Rock and Roll!

Earth’s Aurora Borealis – How Aurora Borealis are formed compared to Ganymede

What the team of scientists led by Joachim Saur of the University of Cologne in Germany realized was that if a saltwater ocean were present, then Lenz’s Law would apply.

 That is to say, the induction current created by the massive magnetic field of Jupiter would create a magnetic field within Ganymede's ocean that would oppose the magnetic field of Jupiter, being as Salt water is diamagnetic.

Coincidentally this is diamagnetism and the resulting repulsion as explained by Lenz's Law is the basis behind the function of Magnetic Induction Wireless Chargers  as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “Samsung declares 2015 Year of Wireless Smartphone Charging becoming an Industry Standard”.

The Aurora, similar to the Aurora Borealis observer on the planet Earth! That Aurora Borealis Is due to charged particle following the field lines that enter the Magnetic fields at the poles of Ganymede. Similar to Earth, our North Pole is really a South Pole and the charged particles, in following those field lines, are accelerated towards the Earth.

On bumping into the Earth's atmosphere, they cause the electrons in the lower energy orbitals of the atoms of air molecules to jump from the grounds state to an excited state. In falling back from their excited state to the Ground state in their original orbitals, these air molecules produce light, which we see on Earth in the North ere and Southern Hemispheres as the Aurora Borealis.

That's the Aurora Borealis in a nutshell and is the same mechanism by which they’re formed on Ganymede, the difference being that the magnetic field of Jupiter, in fighting the opposing magnetic field of Ganymede, causes the aurora that forms to rock back and forth in a predictable fashion.

Ganymede’s Underground Salty Ocean – How Lenz’s Law causes suppressed Aurora from Diamagnetic Salt Water

The team of scientists led by Joachim Saur of the University of Cologne in Germany realized that if a Salty Underground Ocean exists on Ganymede, its magnetic field would more strongly oppose that of Jupiter as theorized in the article “Jupiter's moon Ganymede has vast underground ocean”, published March 12, 2015, 4:46 PM, By WILLIAM HARWOOD, CBS NEWS.

This would be visibly observed as a reduction in the rocking in the altitude at which the Aurora forms on Ganymede.

To quote Dr. Joachim Saur, that made them realize that the Hubble Telescope could be used to observe this reduction in the rocking of Ganymede's Aurora, quote: “I was always brainstorming how we could use a telescope in other ways. Is there a way you could use a telescope to look inside a planetary body? Then I thought, the aurorae! Because aurorae are controlled by the magnetic field, if you observe the aurorae in an appropriate way, you learn something about the magnetic field. If you know the magnetic field, then you know something about the moon’s interior.”

And so they did, training the Hubble Space telescope on Ganymede.

In the process, based on the models that they’d calculated, they realize that Salty underground oceans must exist on Jupiter, as the Rocking motion of the Aurora was reduced to 2 Degrees, which was significantly less than the 6 Degrees if there was no underwater Salty ocean.

These observations are really compared against a model; NASA would have to send probes to drill into the icy crust of Ganymede to see if they could access the salty underground oceans as explained in the article “NASA confirms there's an ocean on Jupiter's moon Ganymede”, published March 12, 2015 12:48 pm By Sean O'Kane, The Verge.

Even more eerie, it may possibly encounter larger multi-cellular creatures swimming in Ganymede’s ocean, such as fish and whales, most likely adapted to live in complete darkness as in a fairly warm ocean as noted in the article “One of Saturn's moons might have warm enough water for life, research shows”, published March 11, 2015 1:13 PM PDT by Michael Franco, CNET News.

These robotic probes would collect and analyze samples of the water in search of microbial life and even possibly swim in this underwater world, sending back pictures of what it encountered.

Life in Interstellar space?

Maybe, but our own backyard remains unexplored and these recent findings suggest that life may not need ESI conditions to exist. Liquid water, present in any form, suggesting an underground ocean teeming with life and even underground inhabitants, similar to the Freman in the Frank Herbert’s Dune, is Life.