The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has released new findings from its Juno mission, which has been exploring the gas giant Jupiter and its fiery moon, Io. The data collected by Juno’s instruments has provided significant insights into Jupiter’s extreme environment, including the planet’s gigantic polar cyclones, fierce jet streams, and volcanic activity on Io.
According to Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, everything about Jupiter is extreme. The planet’s north pole is home to massive cyclones that can be larger than Australia, and its atmosphere holds a strong aurora that is unmatched in our solar system.
Juno’s microwave radiometer (MWR) has been used to study Io, revealing evidence of still-warm magma beneath the moon’s surface. This data suggests that around 10% of Io’s surface has remnants of slowly cooling lava just below the surface. This finding may provide insight into how the moon renews its surface so quickly and how heat moves from its deep interior to the surface.
The team also discovered that Io’s most energetic eruption in recent years is still active today, with scientists believing it will continue to erupt for some time. The data collected by Juno has helped develop a new model to better understand Jupiter’s fast-moving jet stream and the planet’s atmospheric temperature structure.
One of the notable findings from the mission is the discovery of a region on Jupiter’s north pole that is 11°C cooler than its surroundings, encircled by winds exceeding 100 mph (161 kph). The team also observed the long-term movement of Jupiter’s massive northern polar cyclone and eight surrounding cyclones, which are confined to the polar region.
The Juno mission has provided significant insights into Jupiter’s extreme environment and its moon Io. The data collected by the spacecraft will continue to help scientists understand this complex system and may even provide new information about other planets in our solar system.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-04-juno-mission-jupiter-io-surface.html