SAN ANTONIO — March 10, 2025 — Using data collected by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it flew past Jupiter’s highly volcanic moon Io in late 2023 and again in early 2024, a Southwest Research Institute-led team identified electrons with energies enhanced by processes in the region connecting the moon to Jupiter’s ionosphere, called an Alfvén wing. A paper published in Geophysical Research Letters emphasizes how these electrons, and their variation within that region, shape the plasma environment around Io.

TTUHSC student researchers recently participated in the university’s 37th Student Research Week, organized by the TTUHSC Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. The event allows TTUHSC students to showcase their research and hear presentations from distinguished national speakers related to the year’s theme. TTUHSC’s Department of Cell Physiology and Molecular Biophysics hosted the 2025 event, and “Let’s Get Biophysical” was the theme to highlight the host department's focus on biophysical techniques, particularly in membrane protein research. 

It is widely believed that Earth’s atmosphere has been rich in oxygen for about 2.5 billion years due to a relatively rapid increase in microorganisms capable of performing photosynthesis. Researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, provide a mechanism to explain precursor oxygenation events, or “whiffs,” which may have opened the door for this to occur. Their findings suggest volcanic activity altered conditions enough to accelerate oxygenation, and the whiffs are an indication of this taking place.