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<\/p>\nNew data from NASA\u2019s Juno mission, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, has provided scientists with insight into the extreme winds and cyclones present within the gas giant\u2019s atmosphere. The data allowed scientists to develop a model that better represents the fast jet stream circling Jupiter\u2019s north pole, which is cluttered with many cyclones.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, data from Juno\u2019s Io flybys has revealed the subsurface temperature profile of Io, the innermost of the four Galilean moons and the most geologically active world in our solar system. The new temperature profile features new information on Io\u2019s inner structure and the extent of its immense volcanic activity.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything about Jupiter is extreme. The planet is home to gigantic polar cyclones bigger than Australia, fierce jet streams, the most volcanic body in our solar system, the most powerful aurora, and the harshest radiation belts. As Juno\u2019s orbit takes us to new regions of Jupiter\u2019s complex system, we\u2019re getting a closer look at the immensity of energy this gas giant wields,\u201d said Juno\u2019s principal investigator, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.<\/p>\n
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JunoCam image of Io, taken on April 9, 2024. (Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SwRI\/MSSS\/Gerald Eichst\u00e4dt\/Thomas Thomopoulos)<\/p>\n
To collect the data, Juno\u2019s team used the spacecraft\u2019s Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument. MWR is trained to peer through the thick atmospheric clouds of Jupiter and study the planet\u2019s deep atmosphere. However, during its development, Juno\u2019s team also trained and tested the instrument on Io, and since arriving at Jupiter, the team has combined data from MWR and the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument to learn more about Io.<\/p>\n
Juno has completed several flybys of Io during its extended mission, coming within 1,500 km of the moon\u2019s surface on two flybys. MWR, JIRAM, and a variety of other Juno instruments were used during these flybys, as well as other close encounters with Io, to collect the data featured in the new study.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Juno science team loves to combine very different datasets from very different instruments and see what we can learn. When we incorporated the MWR data with JIRAM\u2019s infrared imagery, we were surprised by what we saw: evidence of still-warm magma that hasn\u2019t yet solidified below Io\u2019s cooled crust. At every latitude and longitude, there were cooling lava flows,\u201d said Juno scientist Shannon Brown of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.<\/p>\n
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