Juno Study Challenges Io Global Magma Ocean With 2024 Evidence of Local Sources
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 23
Juno Study Challenges Io Global Magma Ocean With 2024 Evidence of Local Sources
3 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 23
Summary
A 2024 study using Juno gravity data found Io deforms like a mostly solid body, undermining the long-held idea that a shallow global magma ocean feeds its volcanoes.
Juno measured how Jupiter’s tidal pull flexes the moon, and that pattern fits separate local or regional magma reservoirs better than a single planetwide molten layer.
About 400 volcanoes still make Io the solar system’s most volcanically active body, with tidal heating from its elliptical orbit and resonance with Europa and Ganymede driving eruptions.
Voyager 1’s 1979 detection of a 260- to 300-km plume first revealed active volcanism beyond Earth, and later missions including Galileo and New Horizons confirmed giant eruptions reaching up to 500 km.