NASA scientists have finally solved a 44-year-old mystery about Jupiter's moon Io, the most volcanically active body in our solar system.
The answer comes from NASA's Juno spacecraft, which recently revealed that Io's volcanoes are powered by individual magma chambers rather than one massive underground ocean of molten rock.
NASA's Juno Solves the Mystery of Io's 400 Volcanoes
Io, a moon slightly larger than Earth's own, has around 400 active volcanoes. These volcanoes shoot plumes of lava and gas high into space, sometimes stretching hundreds of miles. For years, scientists wondered where the lava came from and how the moon's volcanoes could stay so active.
This volcanic mystery began in 1979 when a scientist named Linda Morabito spotted the first signs of volcanic eruptions on Io.
She was studying images taken by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft when she noticed something unusual: plumes of volcanic material erupting from Io's surface.
Since then, scientists believed that a massive ocean of white-hot magma might lie beneath Io's crust, fueling its volcanic activity. However, new research from Juno shows otherwise.
According to LiveScience, NASA's Juno spacecraft, which launched in 2011, has been studying Jupiter and its moons since 2016. In December 2023 and February 2024, Juno flew closer to Io than ever before, coming within 930 miles of its fiery surface.
During these close flybys, the spacecraft collected data about Io's gravity. By measuring how Jupiter's gravity pulls on Io and comparing it to the moon's movement, scientists learned more about Io's insides.
Io's Volcanoes Fueled by Individual Magma Chambers, Not Ocean
The results showed that Io's volcanoes don't share a massive underground ocean of magma. Instead, each volcano has its chamber of molten rock beneath the surface. These magma chambers are heated by a process called tidal flexing.
Tidal flexing happens because Io orbits Jupiter in an oval-shaped path. As Io moves closer to and farther from the giant planet, Jupiter's powerful gravity squeezes and stretches the moon like a stress ball. This constant squeezing generates heat, which melts parts of Io's rocky interior and fuels its volcanoes.
Scientists say this discovery changes how we think about moons and planets across the solar system.
For example, Jupiter's icy moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus also experience tidal flexing, but they may not have magma oceans like some scientists once believed, Gizmodo said.
This research even helps us understand exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system.
The new findings, published in the journal Nature on December 12, provide a major step forward in understanding how volcanic moons like Io work. With future Juno flybys planned,
NASA hopes to learn even more about this fiery moon and its connection to Jupiter's powerful gravity. For now, scientists are excited to see how Io's unique volcanic activity can teach us more about the universe.
