The Jupiter orbiting probe Juno recently received a strange FM signal from its moon, Ganymede, by accident.
Also known as Ganymede, Io is the largest moon around Jupiter and the largest in the solar system, with a diameter larger than Mercury and a mass about half that of Mercury.
NASA’s Patrick Wiggins told Fox News, “It doesn’t look like a signal from aliens, it’s more likely a natural phenomenon.”
The Juno probe recently received the signal as it passed through Jupiter’s polar regions at 111,847 miles per hour. The signal only lasted about five seconds, but researchers have been able to determine its source.
NASA says the frequency of this signal varies between 10 and 40 MHz, and “we think it’s the electrons circling within Jupiter’s magnetic field that are generating this radio signal.”
FM is one of the common radio wave signal modes on Earth, with a stable signal strength, carrying information through changes in signal frequency; the other common AM signal is stable at one frequency, carrying information through changes in signal strength.
Scientists first discovered radio waves from Jupiter in the 1950s, and this is the first Time that radio signals from its moons have been received. The discovery was recently published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Io is a very peculiar moon. Scientists have discovered quite a few odd phenomena about it.
In 2018, scientists observed it emitting unusually powerful chorus waves. Io is the only moon in our solar system known to have a magnetosphere, and in 2015, the Hubble telescope obtained evidence that Io has subsurface oceans.
The Juno probe departed from Earth in 2011 and was scheduled to be used until July 2021. Now, NASA has decided to extend it to September 2025.
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