August 27, 2004

I Think We All Know How This Story Goes

We are now officially living in the prologue of a science fiction thriller.

John D. Anderson, Gerald Schubert, Robert A. Jacobson, Eunice L. Lau, William B. Moore, Jennifer L. Palguta, "Discovery of Mass Anomalies on Ganymede", Science 305 (2004): 989--991 [link]
Abstract: We present the discovery of mass anomalies on Ganymede, Jupiter's third and largest Galilean satellite. This discovery is surprising for such a large icy satellite. We used the radio Doppler data generated with the Galileo spacecraft during its second encounter with Ganymede on 6 September 1996 to model the mass anomalies. Two surface mass anomalies, one a positive mass at high latitude and the other a negative mass at low latitude, can explain the data. There are no obvious geological features that can be identified with the anomalies.

Well, at least it's not Europa.

(Seriously, this is a pretty cool inverse problem, and worth reading if you're interested in such.)

The Eternal Silence of These Infinite Spaces

Posted at August 27, 2004 08:45 | permanent link

Three-Toed Sloth