Traces of water in the atmosphere of Jupiter’s largest moon

For the first time, the Hubble Space Laboratory has detected traces of water vapor in the atmosphere of Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon.

With this discovery, scientists hope to determine how the atmosphere formed on Jupiter’s moon. Ganymede’s rarefied atmosphere is believed to have formed as a result of the continued evaporation of ice from its surface under the influence of sunlight and charged particles. However, observations showed that oxygen was in its atmosphere, but water was not detected there. Astronomers from several countries led by Kurt Rosenford analyzed observations made by “Hubble” in April 2018, when Ganymede fell for hours in the shadow of Jupiter. Scientists compared the photographs to those taken by “Hubble” in previous years and were able to detect water lines in Ganymede’s spectrum.