Ganymede
According to a NASA ambassador, NASA’s Juno space probe made an exciting discovery in Jupiter’s orbit: the small spacecraft apparently detected an FM radio signal coming from Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede.
This is almost a natural signal, the ambassador said.
“This is not ET,” Patrick Wiggins, one of NASA’s ambassadors to Utah, told the local Utah news station. KTVX reported. “It’s more of a natural feature.”
The intriguing uncertainty remains shrouded in mystery. No other outlet appears to have confirmed Wiggins ‘remarks, and there appears to be no scientific article or press release that agrees with Wiggins’ allegations. Futurism has reached out to Wiggins and NASA for more details on the claim, and we’ll update the story when we hear back.
As expected
The signal was probably caused by electrons oscillating at a slower rate than their rotation, which significantly amplifies radio waves, according to KTVX‘s reporting. The process, known as cyclotron mass instability (CMI), is also behind the auroras on Jupiter that Juno observed in 2017.
In other words, the discovery did not come as a shock, especially when recorded near Jupiter’s polar regions, where magnetic field lines are connected to Ganymede.
We have known since the 1960s about this ‘decametric radio emission’ emanating from Jupiter. On Earth, these signals come roughly with the Wi-Fi signals we use to navigate the Internet. ABC4 point it out.
Juno was able to detect the radio emission for only five seconds, as it orbits Jupiter at 50 kilometers per second, Wiggins said.
READ MORE: FM radio signal found from Jupiter Moon [KTVX]
More about Juno: NASA detects bright flashing light on Jupiter