NASA’s Juno spacecraft has provided unprecedented insights into the volcanic activity of Jupiter’s moon Io, revealing that the small moon is powered by its own chamber of hot magma rather than a global ocean beneath its surface. The findings, presented at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in Washington, DC, and published in the journal Nature, provide significant implications for our understanding of other moons and exoplanets.
Io, similar in size to Earth’s moon, has an estimated 400 volcanoes that continuously release plumes and lava, coating its surface. The Juno mission, which has been orbiting Jupiter and its moons since July 2016, made incredibly close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February, capturing images and data that helped solve the mystery of Io’s volcanic activity.
According to researchers, Io’s numerous volcanoes are each powered by their own chamber of hot magma, rather than a global ocean beneath the surface. This finding could change the way astronomers understand moons dominated by subsurface global oceans in our solar system, such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and planets beyond our solar system.
The Juno mission has provided an unprecedented look at Io’s smoldering surface, including observations of its poles for the first time. The spacecraft captured high-precision Doppler data, which measured Io’s gravity by tracking how close it flew to the moon affected the spacecraft’s acceleration. This data was compared with observations from previous missions and ground-based telescopes.
Io orbits around Jupiter, which exerts a massive gravitational influence that warms up the moon, generating internal heat through tidal flexing. The constant flexing of Jupiter’s tug on Io generates immense energy, which melts part of the moon’s interior, creating volcanoes that erupt constantly.
The findings have significant implications for our understanding of other moons and exoplanets, providing an opportunity to rethink what we know about planetary formation and evolution.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/13/science/jupiter-moon-io-lava-chambers/index.html