Daily Archives: March 19, 2015

Images include theHorsehead Nebula, which is a cold, dark cloud of gas and dust 1,500 light years away Another remarkable image is of NGC 130, one of Hubble's largest images ever made of a complete galaxy Some of the most striking images beamed back from Hubble were created during the death throes of stars

By Ellie Zolfagharifard For Dailymail.com

Published: 20:30 EST, 17 March 2015 | Updated: 10:05 EST, 18 March 2015

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More than any other telescope in orbit, Hubble has expanded the frontiers of human knowledge.

For 25 years, astronomers have used it to peer deep into distant galaxies with unrivalled clarity, revealing the breathtaking beauty of our universe.

In the April issue of National Geographic, some of the most stunning images beamed back for the telescope have been revealed.

The Horsehead Nebula is a cold, dark cloud of gas and dust, silhouetted against the bright nebula IC 434. The bright area at the top left edge is a young star still embedded in its nursery of gas and dust.The nebula is relatively close at 1,500 light years from Earth

Original post:
Images showcase how Hubble telescope is transforming our knowledge of space

The ocean there is thought to extend to 10 times the depth of Earth's oceans

Scientists have also found that Ganymede's surface shows signs of flooding. Credit: NASA/ESA

A salty ocean is lurking beneath the surface of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have found.

The ocean onGanymedewhich is buried under a thick crust of icecould actually harbor more water than all of Earth's surface water combined, according to NASA officials. Scientists think the ocean is about 60 miles (100 kilometers) thick, 10 times the depth of Earth's oceans, NASA added. The new Hubble Space Telescope finding could also help scientists learn more about the plethora of potentially watery worlds that exist in the solar system and beyond.

"The solar system is now looking like a pretty soggy place," Jim Green, NASA's director of planetary science, said during a news teleconference today (March 12). Scientists are particularly interested in learning more about watery worlds because life as we know it depends on water to thrive. [See amazing photos of Ganymede]

Scientists have also found that Ganymede's surface shows signs of flooding. Youngparts of Ganymede seen in a videomap may have been formed by water bubbling up from the interior of the moon through faults or cryo-volcanos at some point in the moon's history, Green said.

Scientists have long suspected that there was an ocean of liquid water on Ganymedethe largest moon in the solar system, at about 3,273 miles (5,268 kilometers) acrosshas an ocean of liquid water beneath its surface. The Galileo probe measured Ganymede's magnetic field in 2002, providing somedata supporting the theory that the moon has an ocean. The newly announced evidence from the Hubble telescope is the most convincing data supporting the subsurface ocean theory yet, according to NASA.

Scientists used Hubble to monitor Ganymede's auroras, ribbons of light at the poles created by the moon's magnetic field. The moon'saurorasare also affected by Jupiter's magnetic field because of the moon's proximity to the huge planet.

When Jupiter's magnetic field changes, so does Ganymede's. Researchers were able to watch the two auroras "rock" back and forth with Hubble. Ganymede's aurora didn't rock as much as expected, so by monitoring that motion, the researchers concluded that a subsurface ocean was likely responsible for dampening the change in Ganymede's aurora created by Jupiter.

"I was always brainstorming how we could use a telescope in other ways," Joachim Saur, geophysicist and team leader of the new finding, said in a statement. "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."

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Jupiter's Moon Ganymede Has a Salty Ocean with More Water Than Earth