NASA received an FM signal from Jupiter’s moon

NASA received an FM signal from Jupiter’s moon

Receiving signals from a planter located faraway does sound scary. Especially if you are a sci-fi movie fan you will end up thinking about an alien invasion or extraterrestrial beings are trying to contact us. 

Well, a similar thing has happened but expecting an alien invasion because of that is exaggerating things. For the first time, a NASA spacecraft has received a signal from Jupiter’s moon.

NASA’s spacecraft Juno received an FM signal from one of Jupiter’s 79 moons named Ganymede. This is the first time any action has been reported from there. NASA’s spacecraft Juno was orbiting Jupiter when it detected FM waves from there. 

Patrick Wiggins,  a NASA ambassador from Utah, “It’s not E.T. ……… It’s more of a natural function.” 

The news of FM signals from a non-living thing planet might excite you or terrify you but it is a natural phenomenon. The source of such signals is mostly electrons. 

The signal originated from a lifeless planet due to a phenomenon called cyclotron maser instability. This process occurs in electromagnetic fields, and it lowers down the spin rate of an oscillating rate. This decrease in the spin rate of electrons causes amplification of all the electromagnetic and radio waves present in the surrounding. 

These amplified signals were received by the spacecraft. It is believed that Juno was moving in a region where the magnetic fields of the planet and its moon, Ganymede coincide when the signal was picked up. 

Juno was sent to space in 2014 as a part of NASA’s “New Frontiers Program.”

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