• Education
    • Higher Education
    • Scholarships & Grants
    • Online Learning
    • School Reforms
    • Research & Innovation
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Fashion & Beauty
    • Home & Living
    • Relationships & Family
  • Technology & Startups
    • Software & Apps
    • Startup Success Stories
    • Startups & Innovations
    • Tech Regulations
    • Venture Capital
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cybersecurity
    • Emerging Technologies
    • Gadgets & Devices
    • Industry Analysis
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy & Policy
Today Headline
  • Home
  • World News
    • Us & Canada
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Africa
    • Middle East
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • Political Parties
    • Government Policies
    • International Relations
    • Legislative News
  • Business & Finance
    • Market Trends
    • Stock Market
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Corporate News
    • Economic Policies
  • Science & Environment
    • Space Exploration
    • Climate Change
    • Wildlife & Conservation
    • Environmental Policies
    • Medical Research
  • Health
    • Public Health
    • Mental Health
    • Medical Breakthroughs
    • Fitness & Nutrition
    • Pandemic Updates
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Tennis
    • Olympics
    • Motorsport
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV & Streaming
    • Celebrity News
    • Awards & Festivals
  • Crime & Justice
    • Court Cases
    • Cybercrime
    • Policing
    • Criminal Investigations
    • Legal Reforms
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • World News
    • Us & Canada
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Africa
    • Middle East
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • Political Parties
    • Government Policies
    • International Relations
    • Legislative News
  • Business & Finance
    • Market Trends
    • Stock Market
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Corporate News
    • Economic Policies
  • Science & Environment
    • Space Exploration
    • Climate Change
    • Wildlife & Conservation
    • Environmental Policies
    • Medical Research
  • Health
    • Public Health
    • Mental Health
    • Medical Breakthroughs
    • Fitness & Nutrition
    • Pandemic Updates
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Tennis
    • Olympics
    • Motorsport
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV & Streaming
    • Celebrity News
    • Awards & Festivals
  • Crime & Justice
    • Court Cases
    • Cybercrime
    • Policing
    • Criminal Investigations
    • Legal Reforms
No Result
View All Result
Today Headline
No Result
View All Result
Home Science & Environment Space Exploration

Cyclones on Jupiter and a moon with flowing magma: NASA Juno probe’s latest discoveries are awesome

May 1, 2025
in Space Exploration
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
0
An image of Jupiter.
5
SHARES
11
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


A flurry of new discoveries from NASA’s Juno mission Jupiter have taken us beneath the surface of the gas giant’s volcanic moon, Io, and into the world of cyclones playing bumper cars at the north Jovian pole.

Juno arrived at the Jupiter system in 2016, but a failed thruster meant that it is now stuck in a wide, polar orbit that brings it close to Jupiter and its moons every 53 days. Still, during those flybys, Juno has amassed a bevy of high-quality data about Jupiter’s atmosphere, including at the planet’s poles, which had not previously been studied in detail.

At Jupiter’s north pole is a cap of stratospheric haze, which Juno has measured to be cooler than its surroundings by 52 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius). Around the polar cap are jet streams blowing faster than 100 miles per hour (161 kilometers per hour). Below the haze, the north polar region is inhabited by one giant, central cyclone about 1,864 miles (3,000 kilometers) across, surrounded by its “groupies” — eight smaller cyclones between 1,490 and 1,790 miles (2,400 and 2,800 kilometers) in size, far surpassing any similar phenomena we have on Earth.

Jupiter, imaged by JunoCam on Jan. 28, 2025 from a distance of 36,000 miles (58,000 kilometers). (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing: Jackie Branc (CC BY))

Juno has been tracking the motion of this system of cyclones in visible and infrared light (in the guise of heat coming from deeper within the atmosphere) since 2016, using its JunoCam and Jovian Infrared Aurora Mapper (JIRAM), respectively. These two instruments have shown that each of the eight cyclones drift towards the pole via a process called “beta drift.” The same process occurs to cyclones on Earth, and is the result of the Coriolis force interacting with the whirling wind pattern belonging to each cyclone. However, on Earth, cyclones never get anywhere near the poles. That’s because the closer they get to cold, dry poles, the more they run out of the warm, moist air that gives them energy. On Jupiter, the atmospheric dynamics are different, and this is not a problem. But once at the pole, Jupiter’s cyclones start bumping into each other.


You may like

“These competing forces result in the cyclones ‘bouncing’ off one another in a manner reminiscent of springs in a mechanical system,” said Yohai Kaspi, a Juno co-investigator from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, in a statement. “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.”

Swirls are seen in this filtered image.

A JIRAM infrared image of the cyclone at Jupiter’s north pole, and the eight cyclones that bustle around it. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM)

Meanwhile, away from Jupiter’s atmosphere, Juno has recently been making recurring fly-bys of the innermost Jovian moon, Io — the most volcanic body in the solar system.

During Juno’s flyby of Io on Dec. 27, 2024, the spacecraft spotted what has turned out to be the most energetic volcanic eruption ever recorded on Io. When Juno returned on March 2, the volcano was still spewing lava, and it is expected to still be active during Juno’s next flyby, which takes place on May 6 at a distance of 55,300 miles (89,000 kilometers) from the surface of Io.

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

But it’s what lies below the surface of Io that has got Juno’s science team excited. By combining the spacecraft’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR) with JIRAM, scientists were able to measure the underground temperature on Io, revealing the presence of subterranean magma flows.

Io is seen in this image, with volcanoes on its surface.

A JIRAM infrared image of the cyclone at Jupiter’s north pole, and the eight cyclones that bustle around it. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM)

“The Juno science team loves to combine very different datasets from very different instruments and see what we can learn,” said Shannon Brown of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “When we incorporated the MWR data with JIRAM’s infrared imagery, we were surprised by what we saw: evidence of still-warm magma that hasn’t yet solidified below Io’s cooling crust. At every latitude and longitude, there were cooling lava flows.”

Juno has previously ruled out the existence of a large magma ocean beneath Io’s surface that could feed the volcanoes, but these cooling, rising flows could explain how Io’s volcanoes erupt. The science team calculates that about 10% of the moon’s subsurface has these cooling flows, which tells us more about how heat is transported from Io’s hot interior to its surface, allowing the world to frequently resurface itself through lava flows spilling out above ground.

“Io’s volcanoes, 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,” said Brown.

The latest Juno results were presented on April 29 at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna.

Previous Post

Smarter ways to find more leaks faster

Next Post

Drugs like Wegovy can be effective at treating fatty liver disease todayheadline

Related Posts

The Eternaut | Official Trailer | Netflix - YouTube

Netflix’s snowy alien invasion series ‘The Eternaut’ is the sci-fi hidden gem of 2025

May 23, 2025
5

Unveiling the secrets of planet formation in environments of high UV radiation

May 23, 2025
7
Next Post

Drugs like Wegovy can be effective at treating fatty liver disease todayheadline

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Family calls for change after B.C. nurse dies by suicide after attacks on the job

Family calls for change after B.C. nurse dies by suicide after attacks on the job

April 2, 2025
Pioneering 3D printing project shares successes

Product reduces TPH levels to non-hazardous status

November 27, 2024

Hospital Mergers Fail to Deliver Better Care or Lower Costs, Study Finds todayheadline

December 31, 2024

Police ID man who died after Corso Italia fight

December 23, 2024
Harris tells supporters 'never give up' and urges peaceful transfer of power

Harris tells supporters ‘never give up’ and urges peaceful transfer of power

0
Des Moines Man Accused Of Shooting Ex-Girlfriend's Mother

Des Moines Man Accused Of Shooting Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother

0

Trump ‘looks forward’ to White House meeting with Biden

0
Catholic voters were critical to Donald Trump’s blowout victory: ‘Harris snubbed us’

Catholic voters were critical to Donald Trump’s blowout victory: ‘Harris snubbed us’

0
cells

Cell therapy for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis shows promise in human trials

May 23, 2025
Apple has had few incentives in the past to start making iPhones in US

Apple has had few incentives in the past to start making iPhones in US

May 23, 2025
Russia and Ukraine say a major prisoner swap has begun

Russia and Ukraine say a major prisoner swap has begun

May 23, 2025
Can EU secure a US trade pact despite Trump's new threat? – DW – 05/23/2025

Can EU secure a US trade pact despite Trump’s new threat? – DW – 05/23/2025

May 23, 2025

Recent News

cells

Cell therapy for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis shows promise in human trials

May 23, 2025
0
Apple has had few incentives in the past to start making iPhones in US

Apple has had few incentives in the past to start making iPhones in US

May 23, 2025
0
Russia and Ukraine say a major prisoner swap has begun

Russia and Ukraine say a major prisoner swap has begun

May 23, 2025
3
Can EU secure a US trade pact despite Trump's new threat? – DW – 05/23/2025

Can EU secure a US trade pact despite Trump’s new threat? – DW – 05/23/2025

May 23, 2025
4

TodayHeadline is a dynamic news website dedicated to delivering up-to-date and comprehensive news coverage from around the globe.

Follow Us

Browse by Category

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Basketball
  • Business & Finance
  • Climate Change
  • Crime & Justice
  • Economic Policies
  • Elections
  • Entertainment
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Environmental Policies
  • Europe
  • Football
  • Gadgets & Devices
  • Health
  • Medical Research
  • Mental Health
  • Middle East
  • Motorsport
  • Olympics
  • Politics
  • Public Health
  • Relationships & Family
  • Science & Environment
  • Software & Apps
  • Space Exploration
  • Sports
  • Stock Market
  • Technology & Startups
  • Tennis
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • Us & Canada
  • Wildlife & Conservation
  • World News

Recent News

Apple has had few incentives in the past to start making iPhones in US

Apple has had few incentives in the past to start making iPhones in US

May 23, 2025
Russia and Ukraine say a major prisoner swap has begun

Russia and Ukraine say a major prisoner swap has begun

May 23, 2025
  • Education
  • Lifestyle
  • Technology & Startups
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy & Policy

© 2024 Todayheadline.co

Welcome Back!

OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Business & Finance
  • Corporate News
  • Economic Policies
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Market Trends
  • Crime & Justice
  • Court Cases
  • Criminal Investigations
  • Cybercrime
  • Legal Reforms
  • Policing
  • Education
  • Higher Education
  • Online Learning
  • Entertainment
  • Awards & Festivals
  • Celebrity News
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Health
  • Fitness & Nutrition
  • Medical Breakthroughs
  • Mental Health
  • Pandemic Updates
  • Lifestyle
  • Fashion & Beauty
  • Food & Drink
  • Home & Living
  • Politics
  • Elections
  • Government Policies
  • International Relations
  • Legislative News
  • Political Parties
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Middle East
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cybersecurity
  • Emerging Technologies
  • Gadgets & Devices
  • Industry Analysis
  • Basketball
  • Football
  • Motorsport
  • Olympics
  • Climate Change
  • Environmental Policies
  • Medical Research
  • Science & Environment
  • Space Exploration
  • Wildlife & Conservation
  • Sports
  • Tennis
  • Technology & Startups
  • Software & Apps
  • Startup Success Stories
  • Startups & Innovations
  • Tech Regulations
  • Venture Capital
  • Uncategorized
  • World News
  • Us & Canada
  • Public Health
  • Relationships & Family
  • Travel
  • Research & Innovation
  • Scholarships & Grants
  • School Reforms
  • Stock Market
  • TV & Streaming
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy & Policy
  • About us
  • Contact

© 2024 Todayheadline.co