New research suggests that Jupiter’s icy moons may have formed with complex organic molecules already embedded in their building blocks.

A cross section of the upper atmosphere, or troposphere, of Jupiter, showing the depth of storms in a north-south swath that crosses the planet's equator, or equatorial zone (EZ). Blue and red ...

Collaborative work by amateur and professional astronomers has helped to resolve a long-standing misunderstanding about the composition of Jupiter's clouds. Instead of being formed of ammonia ice—the ...

Beneath Jupiter's swirling clouds, the planet's internal composition has remained difficult to probe until now. A recent study uses computer models to estimate the amount of oxygen present, thereby ...

“Our findings suggest that Jupiter’s moons did not form as chemically pristine worlds,” Mousis said. “Instead, they may have accreted, or accumulated, a significant inventory of COMs at birth, ...