Exploration of the gas giants

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Peering below Callisto's icy crust with ALMA
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-peering-c ... -alma.html
by Laurence Tognetti, Universe Today

What exists beneath the surface of Jupiter's icy moon, Callisto? This is what a recent study accepted by The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the subsurface composition of Callisto, which is Jupiter's outermost Galilean satellite. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the interior composition of Callisto, which is hypothesized to possess a subsurface liquid water ocean, and develop new techniques for exploring planetary subsurface environments.

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NASA's Juno measures thickness of Europa's ice shell
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-nasa-juno ... a-ice.html
by NASA

Data from NASA's Juno mission has provided new insights into the thickness and subsurface structure of the icy shell encasing Jupiter's moon Europa. Using the spacecraft's Microwave Radiometer (MWR), mission scientists determined that the shell averages about 18 miles (29 kilometers) thick in the region observed during Juno's 2022 flyby of Europa. The Juno measurement is the first to discriminate between thin and thick shell models that have suggested the ice shell is anywhere from less than half a mile to tens of miles thick.

Slightly smaller than Earth's moon, Europa is one of the solar system's highest-priority science targets for investigating habitability. Evidence suggests that the ingredients for life may exist in the saltwater ocean that lies beneath its ice shell. Uncovering a variety of characteristics of the ice shell, including its thickness, provides crucial pieces of the puzzle for understanding the moon's internal workings and the potential for the existence of a habitable environment.

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James Webb Telescope Takes a First Peek Inside Uranus
The planet's upper atmosphere has been mapped for the first time, revealing one of the solar system's most enigmatic members.
By Graham Templeton February 23, 2026

The European Space Agency announced Thursday that a study using the joint NASA/ESA-built James Webb Space Telescope has peered into Uranus's upper atmosphere. It's an important first step in revealing the nature of ice giants both here and elsewhere throughout the universe.

The study focused on the planet's magnetosphere—specifically, the ionosphere, which extends up to 5,000 kilometers above Uranus' cloud tops. Because the ionosphere is predictably full of ions, it is a charged field that interacts strongly with the planet's magnetic field.

This allows the ionosphere to serve as a means of investigating the magnetic field, and, through that, the planet's core and its spectacular auroras.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/jam ... ide-uranus

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