![]() "Young, bright terrain appears colder than dark terrain, with the coldest region sampled being the city-sized impact crater Tros. "When we combined the MWR data with the surface images, we found the differences between these various terrain types are not just skin deep," Bolton said. The instrument was able to measure the structure, purity and temperature of the moons' water ice and their underlying oceans up to the depths of 15 miles (24 km). Measurements from Juno's Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument even allowed the team to peer underneath Europa's and Ganymede's ice cover for the first time. Jupiter's true colors pop in new images from NASA's Juno mission NASA's Juno probe will peer beneath the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa Juno spacecraft snaps gorgeous photo of Jupiter's atmosphere, 2 big moons The September 2022 flyby of Europa generated the first-ever 3D observation of the icy world's frozen shell. The flyby of Ganymede in 2021 produced a flurry of papers on the moon's surface, magnetic field, interior and interaction with Jupiter's magnetosphere. ![]() "With each close flyby, we have been able to obtain a wealth of new information."Īlthough Juno's sensors were primarily designed to study the gaseous giant, they have been delivering outstanding results also during the examination of the Jovian moons, Bolton added. "The team is really excited to have Juno's extended mission include the study of Jupiter's moons," Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio said in the statement. The observations of Io are part of Juno's extended mission, which commenced in 2021. Although Io is unlikely to host life, unlike Ganymede and Europa, scientists are still eager to get a detailed glimpse of this moon, which is the most tectonically active body in the entire solar system. Some of the lava geysers erupt into heights of dozens of miles, or kilometers, according to NASA. Io's surface, on the contrary, is covered in lakes of lava spouting from hundreds of volcanoes scattered on the moon's surface. This perpetual friction generates enormous amounts of heat and pressure within Io, causing molten material and gases to rise through fractures in the crust and to erupt onto the surface.Io is very different from the ice-encrusted moons Ganymede and Europa, which are both believed to hide oceans of water underneath their frozen surfaces, which, scientists think, might harbor primitive forms of life. (The highest ocean tides on Earth only reach about 18 meters (60 ft)). This causes Io's surface to rise and fall by about 100 meters (300 ft). As a result, Io is subjected to tremendous tidal forces that alternately squeeze and stretch its interior. These opposing forces cause the distance between Io and Jupiter to vary, making Io's orbit slightly elliptical. Jupiter pulls Io inward toward itself, while the gravity of the outer moons pull it in the opposite direction. Io's volcanic activity is caused by the powerful force of Jupiter's gravity, coupled with the gravitational pull of Io's neighboring moons-Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede. But there are other moons nearby which exert a gravitational pull of their own. If Io were Jupiter's only moon, it would not be subject to internal stresses. This image taken recently by the Cassini Orbiter shows the relative size of Jupiter and Io. Io is therefore very strongly affected by the pull of Jupiter's gravity. Io, on the other hand, is a tiny moon which orbits very close to the giant planet. More than 1300 Earths would fit within its volume! As a result, Jupiter exerts a tremendous gravitational force. Tidal heating is the heating of the interior of one planetary body caused by stresses induced from the gravitational pull of another. But Io is too small to have left over accretional heat, and radioactive decay could not generate the tremendous energy required to power all of the volcanic activity that exists on the moon. ![]() What force is responsible for powering the volcanoes on Io? On Earth, the heat source that produces volcanic activity comes from energy released from the decay of radioactive materials within the interior, as well as from heat left over from Earth's formation. ![]()
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