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The Mysterious Inner Workings of Io, Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon
Recent flybys of the fiery world refute a leading theory of its inner structure—and reveal how little is understood about geologically active moons.
“If there were indeed a global magma ocean, you’d see a lot more distortion as Io orbited around Jupiter and as the tidal forces flexed it and changed its shape,” said Ashley Davies, a volcanologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who wasn’t involved with the new study. The magnetic signals “were taken as probably the best evidence for a magma ocean, but really they weren’t that strong,” said Francis Nimmo, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a coauthor of the new study. The smooth, lightly scratched surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, photographed by the Juno spacecraft in 2022, shows no sign of what lies beneath: in all likelihood, a vast saltwater ocean.
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