Science matters. Wonder matters. You matter. Join our 2025 Donation Campaign today.<\/strong><\/p>\n The giant planet Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io are two of the most dynamic and extreme places in the solar system. Jupiter\u2019s deep atmosphere churns with massive, powerful jet streams and cyclones that dwarf any storms on Earth. Io is the most volcanically active body in the entire solar system, with hundreds of active sulfur volcanoes. Now, NASA\u2019s Juno orbiter has taken a closer look beneath Jupiter\u2019s turbulent clouds and Io\u2019s fiery surface. NASA said on April 29, 2025, that the findings provide new clues about Jupiter\u2019s jet streams and storms, and Io\u2019s structure and volcanic activity below its surface.<\/p>\n The researchers presented the new results at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna, Austria, on April 29.<\/p>\n Jupiter is often referred to as the \u201cking of the planets.\u201d And as might be expected, its fierce and extreme behavior matches its size. Scott Bolton is the principal investigator of Juno at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. He said:<\/p>\n Everything 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Unlike storms on Earth, Jupiter\u2019s storms tend to last much, much longer. The Great Red Spot is a perfect example of this, surviving for hundreds of years, although it is now shrinking. Some of the most jaw-dropping storms are the cluster of huge cyclones that encircle Jupiter\u2019s north pole. A massive central cyclone is surrounded by multiple others. Although they drift slightly, they remain confined to this region around the pole. The cyclones, in turn, are encircled by a powerful jet stream.<\/p>\n Juno watched the cyclones as it orbited Jupiter. Each storm drifts slowly closer to the pole. This is similar to how cyclones and hurricanes on Earth migrate. Scientists call this beta drift. Basically, it is the interaction between the Coriolis force and the cyclone\u2019s circular wind pattern. On Earth, however, these storms will break up and dissipate as they run out of warm, moist air. You can see this happen as a hurricane starts to move over land.<\/p>\n But on Jupiter, there are no land masses to interfere with the cyclones\u2019 movement. The cyclones cluster together and their interaction causes them to gradually slow down and \u201cbounce\u201d off one another. Co-investigator Yohai Kaspi, at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, explained:<\/p>\n These competing forces result in the cyclones \u2018bouncing\u2019 off one another in a manner reminiscent of springs in a mechanical system. This interaction not only stabilizes the entire configuration, but also causes the cyclones to oscillate around their central positions, as they slowly drift westward, clockwise, around the pole.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Io, moon of Jupiter, from the Juno spacecraft on May 6, 2025. The night side can be seen in reflected light from the planet.<\/p>\n \u2014 Ted Stryk (@tedstryk.bsky.social) 2025-05-09T17:49:56.039Z<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In addition, Juno also used radio waves to measure the temperatures in Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere. It began these experiments during its 53rd orbit of the giant planet, on February 18, 2023. Juno used a technique called radio occultation. How did it work? The mission team back on Earth sent a radio signal to Juno. Then, Juno returned a signal back to Earth. Both signals passed through Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere. Consequently, the atmosphere bent, or refracted, those signals. By measuring the amount of refraction, scientists could obtain data about both the temperature and density of the atmosphere.<\/p>\n To date, Juno has now performed radio occultations 26 times. They show the stratospheric cap over Jupiter\u2019s north pole is about 11 degrees Celsius (20 F) cooler than the surrounding atmosphere. (Jupiter has a stratosphere, like Earth does.) The cap is surrounded by winds that reach over 100 mph (161 kph).<\/p>\n Io\u2019s surface is dotted with hundreds of sulfur volcanoes. There are multiple eruptions occurring at any given time, coating the surface in colorful flows of lava and plume deposits. In fact, the moon kind of looks like a giant pizza. But what about beneath the surface?<\/p>\n Juno used its microwave radiometer (MWR) and Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instruments to peek below the roiling surface. They found magma that was still warm beneath the cooler crust. Io only has an extremely tenuous atmosphere, so the crust cools down in the near-vacuum of space. The magma deposits are below about 10% of Io\u2019s surface. Juno scientist Shannon Brown at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California said:<\/p>\n The 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.<\/p>\n Io\u2019s volcanos, lava fields and subterranean lava flows act like a car radiator, efficiently moving heat from the interior to the surface, cooling itself down in the vacuum of space.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
New insights into Jupiter and Io<\/h3>\n
Jupiter, a fierce and extreme world<\/h3>\n
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Tracking Jupiter\u2019s massive cyclones<\/h3>\n
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Measuring the temperature of Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere<\/h3>\n
Looking beneath Io\u2019s volcanoes<\/h3>\n
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