When we think that the universe cannot surprise us any more, it always leaves us room for more imagination. Today we are going to talk about Calisto, the second moon of Jupiter, because NASA has confirmed, after many investigations, something that seems mind-blowing: beneath it there could be an immense ocean under its frozen surface! It was the Galileo probe that has given us a little more insight into this phenomenon. Could Calisto be an oceanic probe? Are we closer to finding extraterrestrial life?
What is the Galileo probe?
A NASA mission launched no less than 36 years ago, in 1989! Its objective is to study Jupiter and its moons. It was the first ship to orbit around this planet and provided us with key information about it. It had already discovered the ice oceans on Europa and the volcanic eruptions on Io (two other of its moons). However, its mission ended in 2003, when NASA decided to bring it much closer to Jupiter so that it would disintegrate and not contaminate the moon Europa (since if it had crashed, it could have affected the possible underground ecosystems found there). Galileo was a truly brave man who helped us better understand how the giant of our solar system works and is formed, as well as being the father of future missions such as Juno, which now took over.
The secrets of Jupiter’s Moons
You’ve probably heard of both Io and Europa, but Callisto is no slouch. It’s one of the largest moons on the planet and the third largest in the entire solar system. And although it looks rocky and full of craters, making it seem like it’s just an inert satellite… It’s not.
For decades, scientists have had a gut feeling about this planet. Could there be liquid water under its ice? There were all their doubts, but Callisto’s intense ionosphere created a problem: it could have been imitating the magnetic signature of a saltwater ocean, making it difficult to actually detect.
The Galileo Probe expedition
For 8 long years, Galileo was researching Jupiter’s moons and discovered that Callisto could have salt water under its ice layer.
Could there be life on Callisto?
Water, as we know, is the source of life and that’s where we come from, the ocean. The fact that Callisto has water doesn’t necessarily mean that organisms exist under that layer of ice, but it is a great candidate for the development of some species.
NASA and the European Space Agency have developed missions, such as Europa Clipper and JUICE, which will study moons such as Europa, Ganymede and now, even more so, Callisto. What if we’re really not alone?!
How are they going to work from now on?
The future of this research looks promising, during this time, they have been working by combining resources, the team combined the analysis of the data obtained by Galileo with a model that simulated the ionosphere of Callisto, and the results obtained from the observations have made clear a “theory” with which they conclude that the ionosphere of the satellite cannot by itself explain the magnetism, but that water (ocean) could have something to do with this.
Who would have thought that we would be so close to knowing whether or not we are the only living beings in this solar system? Who knows what form they will have, if they will look like us or if they will have shapes or characteristics that we would never have imagined. The future has to come now, we need to see the first human missions exploring the hidden seas of Callisto!