An international team of astronomers has discovered hydrogen peroxide on Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter. The discovery was made using the James Webb Space Telescope.

The discovery is reported in an article published in the journal Science Advances, and the work is briefly reported by Sci News. Ganymede is the only satellite in the Solar System that has its own magnetic field. Earlier simulations showed that interactions between this field and the Jupiter magnetosphere should direct most of the colliding charged particles associated with them to the polar regions of Ganymede. The latter, as the theory suggested, can change the chemical composition of the surface throughout the Jupiter system.

Observations using the James Webb Space Telescope allowed the creation of a spectroscopic map of Ganymede. It was created on the basis of measurements that indicated the absorption of light around the poles, characteristic of hydrogen peroxide. Astronomers explain that in this case, hydrogen peroxide is a product of radiolysis of water ice. Analyzing the data obtained by the NIRSpec near-infrared spectrograph, Professor Imke de Pater and his colleagues concluded that the formation of this compound is the result of a collision of charged particles around Jupiter with ice covering the surface of its satellite.

Observations using the James Webb Space Telescope allowed the creation of a spectroscopic map of Ganymede. It was created on the basis of measurements that indicated the absorption of light around the poles, characteristic of hydrogen peroxide. Astronomers explain that in this case, hydrogen peroxide is a product of radiolysis of water ice. Analyzing the data obtained by the NIRSpec near-infrared spectrograph, Professor Imke de Pater and his colleagues concluded that the formation of this compound is the result of a collision of charged particles around Jupiter with ice covering the surface of its satellite.

Source: Наука