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conversation.  Magma ocean explains volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon
(Click image for a larger view.) This image from NASA'S Galilieo
spacecraft shows Jupiter's moon Io. (NASA photo)  Scientists
believe there’s a bubbling, subsurface ocean of molten magma on
Io, the innermost of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons.  That goes a
long way toward explaining why Io is the most volcanic body in
the known solar system, producing about 100 times more lava
every year than all the volcanoes on Earth.  Researchers
determined the existence of the massive magma ocean when the
Galilieo spacecraft detected strange patterns in magnetic field
data  from the moon.  “It turns out Io was continually giving
off a ‘sounding signal’ in Jupiter’s rotating magnetic field
that matched what would be expected from molten or partially
molten rocks deep beneath the surface,” the UCLA’s Krishan
Khurana, lead author of the study, said in a NASA statement.
Rock samples studied by Khurana’