spacetoday.net: Ganymede may have layers of water and ice below its surface

Ganymede may have layers of water and ice below its surface

Posted: Tue, May 6, 2014, 10:05 AM ET (1405 GMT)
Ganymede ice and water layers illustration (NASA/JPL)

A new model of the interior of the solar system's largest moon suggests its interior may be composed of multiple layers of ice and liquid water, creating conditions that could support the formation of primitive life. The model of the interior of Ganymede shows that, rather that a large liquid water ocean between two layers of ice, liquid water and ice may alternate in several layers, due to the different forms ice takes on at higher pressures. In this model, dense, salty liquid water exists in a layer directly above the moon's rocky interior, creating conditions more beneficial for the formation of life than if a layer of ice was above the rocky seafloor.