But it is not home to large amounts of water.Įuropa, Ganymede, and Callisto, in contrast, have icy landscapes. These missions and other observations revealed that Io, the closest of the four to its host planet, is abuzz with geological activity, including lava lakes, volcanic eruptions, and tectonically formed mountains. The Juno mission is still orbiting Jupiter today and has provided scientists with an unprecedented view into Jupiter’s composition, structure and space environment. The Galileo mission orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003 and led to geological discoveries on all four large moons. Two previous NASA missions have sent spacecraft to orbit the Jupiter system and collected data on these moons. Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are, like Earth’s Moon, relatively large, spherical complex worlds. Four of them in particular are of interest to planetary scientists. Meet Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto This composite image shows, from top to bottom, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto next to Jupiter. Three of Jupiter’s moons – Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto – are home to large, underground oceans of liquid water that could support life. But perhaps the most exciting information will have to do with water. There are many reasons my colleagues and I are looking forward to getting the data that JUICE and Europa Clipper will hopefully be sending back to Earth in the 2030s. I’m a planetary scientist who studies the structure and evolution of solid planets and moons in the solar system. In October 2024, NASA is also planning to launch a robotic spacecraft named Europa Clipper to the Jovian moons, highlighting an increased interest in these distant, but fascinating, places in the solar system.
The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer - or JUICE - will spend at least three years exploring Jupiter’s moons after it arrives in 2031.
On April 14, 2023, the European Space Agency launched a rocket carrying a spacecraft destined for Jupiter. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute, CC BY-SA The surface of Europa - one of Jupiter’s moons – is a thick layer of solid ice.
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