Professor Emma Bunce will discuss The Future Exploration of Jupiter and Ganymede for the 2021 RAS Presidential Address. During this talk, Emma will focus on the main motivation for the European Space Agency’s future mission: the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (known as JUICE) – the planet-sized Galilean moon Ganymede. Ganymede is a unique moon within our Solar System (as far as we know) in that it possesses an internal magnetic field and thus a miniature magnetosphere is formed within the rapidly rotating magnetosphere of Jupiter. The largest Galilean moon even has its own auroral emissions in its tenuous oxygen atmosphere. Previous observations of the magnetic field near to Ganymede have revealed that the signatures may also be consistent with an induced magnetic field signature potentially indicating the presence of a global ocean underneath the icy crust. This is an important question to answer given that it has significant implications for habitability of ocean worlds within or beyond our solar system. This presentation will describe the detection of the ocean from a magnetic field perspective, discuss recent observations of the aurora at Ganymede that may support the presence of an ocean, and look forward to the new ESA JUICE mission due for launch in 2022. The lecture will be preceded by a welcome message from Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian White, and  followed by a conversation with conference co-chair Professor Carole Mundell.

This presidential address will take place on Monday 19 July at 19:00-20:30 BST on our central stage. (YouTube Recording)