If you went out relatively unprotected with, like a normal spacesuit from our space programs these days and walked down on the surface, you’ll get a lethal dose of radiation in minutes. 

 

There is one corner of the Jovian system where you could find some unexpected protection from Jupiter’s dangerous space weather. Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, comes complete with its very own force field.

 

There is something happening in the interior that is active enough to generate electrical currents and produce magnetic field.

 

Ganymede’s deep interior is probably hot today. And we know this because Ganymede has its own internally generated magnetic fields, which says that it has an iron core that’s hot and convecting today.

 

Sitting safely under Ganymede’s magnetic umbrella is a good spot to gaze up at Jupiter’s amazing non-stop auroras, 100 times more powerful than Earth’s. 

 

It would be (a) pretty beautiful sight, from my position, on Ganymede. Perhaps I have a drink in my hand and I might be able to see this spectacular/oval, unfolding in a dynamic, you know, vista right in front. That would be pretty cool.

 

From Ganymede you also see the last of Jupiter’s big four moons, Callisto. Callisto is a kind of having been the dull, boring center of a satellite of the system ever since we saw its dark, pockmarked, very heavily-cratered ancient surface.

 

The battered surfaces of Callisto and Ganymede reveal a darker side of living in the same cosmic neighborhood with a giant, like Jupiter。