Destination: Ganymede

It's official: it was announced today that Oxford University scientists will help to prepare a mission to Jupiter and its icy moons. But whilst the JUICE spacecraft will beam back valuable data on several of the planet's satellites, it will give special attention to one in particular: Ganymede . I asked Leigh Fletcher of Oxford University's Department of Physics, one of the JUICE team, about the appeal of Ganymede, what they hope to find there, and how Oxford scientists will probe the secrets of this enigmatic 'waterworld'. OxSciBlog: What makes Ganymede so interesting? - Leigh Fletcher: When people think of moons in our solar system, they often imagine them as being inferior to the main planets, and somehow less interesting. The moons of Jupiter show how wrong that misguided assumption can be - the four largest Jovian moons ( Io , Europa , Ganymede, and Callisto ) are the size of planets, and each has a fascinating and rich geologic and chemical history. These moons truly are worlds in their own right, with a diverse range of unusual landscapes and features that can keep scientists busy for decades. ESA has chosen to focus on Ganymede, the largest example of an icy moon in our solar system.