The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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This is a GIF from a longer animation. Click here to view the animation in full.
This animation shows the interior structure of Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Ganymede is thought to host subsurface liquid oceans that will be explored in detail by ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice). It has an icy crust with evidence of a subsurface liquid ocean overlying an icy mantle, a rocky mantle, and core. Juice will characterise the icy crust and the extent of the subsurface ocean. It will also measure Ganymede’s intrinsic magnetic field in great detail. It is the only moon in the Solar System to generate its own magnetic field, which has complex interactions with Jupiter’s own vast magnetic field, and Juice will study the relationship between the two.
Understanding the state of the moon's interior, and in particular if it hosts liquid water, will help answer important questions about the habitability potential of the moon, and of similar exoplanet systems elsewhere in our Universe.