Unraveling electron acceleration mechanisms in Ganymede's space environment through N-S conjugate imagery of Jupiter's aurora

There is strong scientific interest in Ganymede (Jupiter's third Galilean moon) and its surrounding environment, which stems from the likely presence of a liquid water ocean underneath its icy crust and from its internally driven magnetic field. The interaction of the latter with Jupiter's magnetospheric plasma and its magnetic field gives rise to a unique situation in our solar system implying a mini-magnetosphere embedded within a giant-magnetosphere. This interaction generates Ganymede's ultraviolet auroral footprint in Jupiter's atmosphere. We propose to investigate the strong auroral connection between Jupiter and Ganymede and the variable characteristics of Ganymede's magnetosphere with an innovative approach, taking advantage of the large scale north-south asymmetries of Jupiter's magnetic field. The results obtained for Ganymede will be compared with the case of small injected hot plasma bubbles observed by the Galileo spacecraft and whose size and location are similar to those of Ganymede's magnetosphere. HST is currently the sole instrument capable of obtaining this information which pins down the proposed mechanisms linking the source and sink regions of auroral particles in the giant planets' magnetospheres.