100-Hubble Finds Evidence of Water Vapor at Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede

Astronomers have used new and archival datasets from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to uncover evidence of water vapor in the atmosphere of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede.

The vapor is present due to the thermal excitation of water molecules from the moon’s icy surface.

Previous research has offered circumstantial evidence for the moon containing more water than all of Earth’s oceans. However, temperatures there are so cold that water on the surface freezes and the ocean lies roughly 100 miles below the crust.