What exactly are “organic compounds”?
Definitions range from “chemicals with carbon-carbon and/or carbon-hydrogen bonds” to “any chemical with carbon in it.” It’s important to note that, while living things are largely made up of organic compounds, organic compounds don’t necessarily mean living things.
Also since carbon-based life is all we are currently aware of, but we only have one example to go from, living things does not necessarily mean carbon.
That makes a lot of sense. So most likely they found something with Carbon and dont want to specify in public
Pretty deep in the article, I found the passage
…scientists were able to directly detect and analyze spectral features of non-water-ice materials on Ganymede’s surface. Some of these non-water-ice materials include hydrated sodium chloride, ammonium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and possibly even aliphatic aldehyde.
It’s less that they don’t want to say, and more that this is more or less meaningless to anyone who isn’t a chemist
To answer the question behind your question, organic compounds are the building blocks of all lifeforms we know, but they are not always created by life. They can also be created by physical processes without any lifeform present.
What is organic compounds in science terms?
organic compound, any of a large class of chemical compounds in which one or more atoms of carbon are covalently linked to atoms of other elements, most commonly hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen. The few carbon-containing compounds not classified as organic include carbides, carbonates, and cyanides.
Personally I don’t think it’s ever once explained in any science or news shows. Perhaps its because it gets the imagination going. (because… It’s organic!)
Compounds which are not inorganic.
The flyby video is awesome!
