NASA’s Galileo spacecraft

Persistence – and adaptive optics – track Io volcanoes

16 August 2019 Astronomy Now

Using adaptive optics, researchers have been monitoring Jupiter’s tortured moon Io for the past five years, gaining new insights into its persistent volcanism.

Cassini spacecraft samples interstellar dust near Saturn

15 April 2016 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004, studying the giant planet, its rings and its moons. Among the myriad microscopic grains collected by Cassini, a special three dozen stand out from the crowd. Scientists conclude these specks of material came from interstellar space — the space between the stars.

Underground magma ocean could explain Io’s ‘misplaced’ volcanoes

13 September 2015 Astronomy Now

Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system, with hundreds of volcanoes, some erupting lava fountains up to 250 miles high. New NASA research suggests that tides flowing in a subsurface ocean of molten rock, or magma, could explain why Io’s volcanoes appear in the “wrong” place compared to models that predict how the moon’s interior is heated.