Juno's Discovery: Salts and Organics Found on Ganymede's Surface
NASA's Juno mission has discovered mineral salts and organic compounds on the surface of Jupiter's moon Ganymede. The JIRAM spectrometer aboard the spacecraft collected data during a close flyby, revealing the presence of hydrated sodium chloride, ammonium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and possibly aliphatic aldehydes. These findings provide insights into the moon's composition and its briny past, shedding light on the origin of Ganymede and its deep ocean.