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Largest ocean in our solar system isn't even on Earth, apparently: > ... Ganymede’s ocean is even bigger than Europa’s—and might be the largest in the entire s

Largest ocean in our solar system isn't even on Earth, apparently: > ... Ganymede’s ocean is even bigger than Europa’s—and might be the largest in the entire solar system. “The Ganymede ocean is believed to contain more water than the Europan one,” he says. “Six times more water in Ganymede’s ocean than in Earth's ocean, and three times more than Europa.” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/overlooked-ocean-worlds-fill-the-outer-solar-system/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/overlooked-ocean-...

teekert 2y ago
https://www.businessinsider.nl/earth-water-ice-volume-versus-planets-moons-2016-11/?international=true&r=US https://www.businessinsider.nl/earth-water-ice-volume-versus... Ganymede vs. Earth is indeed very surprising!
JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> Ganymede’s ocean is even bigger than Europa’s Europa Clipper launches in October [1]. I've seen talk of crashing it into Ganymede to give JUICE novel data [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Clipper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Clipper [2] https://www.space.com/europa-clipper-might-crash-into-ganymede https://www.space.com/europa-clipper-might-crash-into-ganyme...
Sparkyte 2y ago
We could probably terraform Mars if we crashed Europa into Mars.
- staplers 2y ago
  Might have some "slight" orbital and shrapnel repercussions..
- wildzzz 2y ago
  And then we completely skew Mars's orbit until it crashes into the sun or is flung out of the solar system.
  - littlestymaar 2y ago
    If we had the technology allowing us to move a full satellite through the solar system, we could probably do it in a way that would just make Mars a bit closer to the sun so that the weather gets nicer (sure, if it gets too close to earth it's going to mess up with both orbits, but we can as well correct it when it happens, right?)
    - Sparkyte 2y ago
      It doesn't have to be near the sun to have heat or be warmed by the Sun. It is still currently in the goldilocks zone, same with Venus. The difference is how well each planet traps heat. No atmosphere no heat for mars, highest peak surface temperature is 70 fehrenheit or 20 celsius. Not much but enough green house gas and you could raise it by 20 degrees or more. Other thing to consider is that you don't need to move Mars, you could create artificial magnetospheres.
- ianburrell 2y ago
  It would make Mars warmer. It would melt all the ice and CO2. It would give Mars an ocean. Of liquid rock. This is assuming that it doesn't destroy Mars completely. There might be enough fragments to make Solar System dangerous place and destroy life on Earth. Europa is the size of our Moon. Colliding it with Mars would be similar to the collision that formed our Moon.
  - Mistletoe 2y ago
    But would it stay on Mars? I thought the issue was there was no dynamo in the core, which lets solar winds strip it away. How long would it stay?
    - ianburrell 2y ago
      It would stay molten for millions of years. Not sure if Europa's water would be flung into space, make atmosphere, or make a boiling ocean.
    - yobbo 2y ago
      There's probably a way to engineer it such that the spin of the planet is 24h, the core is spun up. We'd also like ~365 day years.
    - px43 2y ago
      At some point I saw a design for a machine you could park at the Lagrange point between Mars and the Sun that would collect solar power and spit out a magnetic field strong enough to deflect enough of the solar winds that we wouldn't need to worry about that.
  - yobbo 2y ago
    Let's do it. No one remembers a coward.
    - jajko 2y ago
      Also nobody remembers when there is nobody alive
- hoseja 2y ago
  If we could crash Europa into Mars we'd have capability to terraform Mars in a more reasonable manner.
- keepamovin 2y ago
  And then wait 160 million years for the planet to settle. I like your long term thinking.
mkl 2y ago
https://archive.ph/gkZ20 https://archive.ph/gkZ20
divbzero 2y ago
Ganymede having an ocean surprised me given that its surface appears rocky in photos. Apparently, it’s an internal ocean hidden under the surface.
Lautzi 2y ago
The largest ocean in the solar system actually is on Jupiter [1]. The gas planet has an absolute massive amount of liquid hydrogen on its "surface". But yeah, liquid hydrogen isn't water, so it might be the biggest ocean, but not the biggest ocean made out of water in our solar system :). [1]: https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/jupiter-facts/ https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/jupiter-facts/ (Under "Structure")

teekert 2y ago

https://www.businessinsider.nl/earth-water-ice-volume-versus-planets-moons-2016-11/?international=true&r=US https://www.businessinsider.nl/earth-water-ice-volume-versus... Ganymede vs. Earth is indeed very surprising!

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> Ganymede’s ocean is even bigger than Europa’s Europa Clipper launches in October [1]. I've seen talk of crashing it into Ganymede to give JUICE novel data [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Clipper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Clipper [2] https://www.space.com/europa-clipper-might-crash-into-ganymede https://www.space.com/europa-clipper-might-crash-into-ganyme...

Sparkyte 2y ago

We could probably terraform Mars if we crashed Europa into Mars.

staplers 2y ago
Might have some "slight" orbital and shrapnel repercussions..
wildzzz 2y ago
And then we completely skew Mars's orbit until it crashes into the sun or is flung out of the solar system.
- littlestymaar 2y ago
  If we had the technology allowing us to move a full satellite through the solar system, we could probably do it in a way that would just make Mars a bit closer to the sun so that the weather gets nicer (sure, if it gets too close to earth it's going to mess up with both orbits, but we can as well correct it when it happens, right?)
  - Sparkyte 2y ago
    It doesn't have to be near the sun to have heat or be warmed by the Sun. It is still currently in the goldilocks zone, same with Venus. The difference is how well each planet traps heat. No atmosphere no heat for mars, highest peak surface temperature is 70 fehrenheit or 20 celsius. Not much but enough green house gas and you could raise it by 20 degrees or more. Other thing to consider is that you don't need to move Mars, you could create artificial magnetospheres.
ianburrell 2y ago
It would make Mars warmer. It would melt all the ice and CO2. It would give Mars an ocean. Of liquid rock. This is assuming that it doesn't destroy Mars completely. There might be enough fragments to make Solar System dangerous place and destroy life on Earth. Europa is the size of our Moon. Colliding it with Mars would be similar to the collision that formed our Moon.
- Mistletoe 2y ago
  But would it stay on Mars? I thought the issue was there was no dynamo in the core, which lets solar winds strip it away. How long would it stay?
  - ianburrell 2y ago
    It would stay molten for millions of years. Not sure if Europa's water would be flung into space, make atmosphere, or make a boiling ocean.
  - yobbo 2y ago
    There's probably a way to engineer it such that the spin of the planet is 24h, the core is spun up. We'd also like ~365 day years.
  - px43 2y ago
    At some point I saw a design for a machine you could park at the Lagrange point between Mars and the Sun that would collect solar power and spit out a magnetic field strong enough to deflect enough of the solar winds that we wouldn't need to worry about that.
- yobbo 2y ago
  Let's do it. No one remembers a coward.
  - jajko 2y ago
    Also nobody remembers when there is nobody alive
hoseja 2y ago
If we could crash Europa into Mars we'd have capability to terraform Mars in a more reasonable manner.
keepamovin 2y ago
And then wait 160 million years for the planet to settle. I like your long term thinking.

mkl 2y ago

https://archive.ph/gkZ20 https://archive.ph/gkZ20

divbzero 2y ago

Ganymede having an ocean surprised me given that its surface appears rocky in photos. Apparently, it’s an internal ocean hidden under the surface.

Lautzi 2y ago

The largest ocean in the solar system actually is on Jupiter [1]. The gas planet has an absolute massive amount of liquid hydrogen on its "surface". But yeah, liquid hydrogen isn't water, so it might be the biggest ocean, but not the biggest ocean made out of water in our solar system :). [1]: https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/jupiter-facts/ https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/jupiter-facts/ (Under "Structure")