Juno Spots ‘Hot Rings’ on Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io
These bright (hot) ‘thermal rings’ are a common phenomenon, and they are indicative of active lava lakes, according to a new analysis of data from the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper…
Study: Jupiter’s Moon Io Has Been Volcanically Active for All of Its History
Sulfur and chlorine isotopes in Io’s atmosphere indicate that it has been volcanically active for the entire 4.57 billion-year history of the Solar System. This global view of Io was…
NASA’s Juno Mission Provides Close-Ups of Intriguing Features on Io
In December 2023 and February 2024, NASA’s Juno spacecraft made extremely close flybys of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io, getting within about 1,500 km (930 miles) of the surface and obtaining…
NASA’s Juno Orbiter Captures Stunning Images of Jupiter’s Moon Io
On February 3, 2024, NASA’s Juno spacecraft made a second close flyby of Io, the fifth of Jupiter’s moons and the third largest. Like the previous flyby on December 30,…
Scientists Explain Why Jupiter’s and Saturn’s Icy Moons Have Extreme Radar Properties
The radar properties of icy satellites of Jupiter and Saturn commonly differ by more than an order of magnitude from those of rocky planets because of the lower absorptivity of…
Trace Gas Detection Sheds New Light on Atmospheres of Jupiter and Its Volcanic Moon Io
Using data from NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and NASA’s Juno spacecraft, two teams of astronomers have examined the distribution of…