Water on Jupiter and Saturn Moons Excites NASA

Water is making waves on moons of Jupiter and Saturn. While on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, a sub-surface ocean was discovered, researchers discovered activity on Saturn's moon Enceladus akin to Earth's oceans this week.

According to IB Times, Ganymede discovery was made based on Hubble Telescope's data. The hidden ocean on the moon may contain more water than Earth's ocean.

The ocean is estimated to be 60 miles deep but is buried under a 95-mile crust of ice. The ocean was detected by Hubble Telescope through the magnetic field that Jupiter induces in the moon's ocean.

This secondary magnetic field opposes the Jupiter's magnetic field. The aurorae over the north and south poles of the moon are rocked due to the interaction of the magnetic fields. Due to the countering magnetic field of the ocean, the rocking of aurorae was lesser than what calculations suggest if the ocean was absent.

"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," said Joachim Saur of the University of Cologne in Germany, in a news release.

On Enceladus, NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected hypodermal activity akin to what happens in Earth's oceans when seawater reacts with rocky crust and emerges as a heated geyser. Such environments can be linked with life, researchers believe.

"These findings add to the possibility that Enceladus, which contains a subsurface ocean and displays remarkable geologic activity, could contain environments suitable for living organisms. The locations in our solar system where extreme environments occur in which life might exist may bring us closer to answering the question: are we alone in the Universe," said NASA's John Grunsfeld.