Jupiter’s moon, Io, is the most volcanically active planetary body in the solar system, boasting hundreds of active volcanoes spewing molten lava into space. This occurs from a process called tidal heating where Jupiter’s massive gravity constantly stretches and compresses the much smaller moon during the latter’s non-circular orbit. However, a lesser-known fact is that Io’s volcanic gases fuel Jupiter’s aurorae by traveling along Jupiter’s magnetic field lines, resulting in Jupiter’s bright aurorae observed by spacecraft and Earth-based telescopes. But what if this same phenomenon could be used to detect Io-like exomoons, also called exo-Ios, orbiting Jupiter-like exoplanets?

Now, an international team of researchers might be one step closer to answering this question as they introduced a novel method for potentially detecting and confirming the existence of exo-Ios. The findings for this study were recently accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal and holds the potential to help scientists identify and detect exo-Ios and possibly other exomoons, too.

For the study, the researchers analyzed transit auroral data obtained from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) about exoplanet SIMP 0136+0933, which is located about 20 light-years from Earth, is about 12.7 Jupiter masses, and completes one rotation in only 2.4 hours. For context, the planet Jupiter takes slightly under 10 hours to rotate once on its axis. The reason the researchers analyzed auroral data was to ascertain if a volcanically active exomoon could be “feeding” SIMP 0136+0933’s aurorae like Io is hypothesized to feed Jupiter’s aurorae.

SIMP 0136+0933’s aurorae data was obtained when it transited, or passed in front of, its host star, and produced what’s called a light curve that JWST analyzed. In the end, the researchers found that SIMP 0136+0933 could potentially possess an exomoon with estimated success rates of detecting an exo-Io or even an exo-Ganymede at 66 and 93 percent, respectively.

The study notes in its conclusions, “Although the existing light curves demonstrate that the transit technique is capable of detecting exosatellites analogous to Io in the aurorally active SIMP 0136+0933 system, the duration of the archival data is insufficient to place meaningful constraints on the presence of a transiting satellite. We conclude that JWST light curves spanning ∼1.5 days for ∼4-12 known aurorally active super-Jupiters would be needed to place meaningful statistical constraints whether Io analogs are commonly present in these systems.”

Along with being designated as a “super-Jupiter”, SIMP 0136+0933 is designated as a free-floating planetary-mass object. This is different from being designated as a rogue planet since scientists label it as sitting at the boundary of being too small to be a star and too large to become a planet. Although, describing SIMP 0136+0933 as a rogue planet is still acceptable. When it was first discovered in 2006, SIMP 0136+0933 was first designated as a brown dwarf star as part of a cluster of stars about 200 million years old. Brown dwarf stars are also called a “failed star” because they didn’t become large enough to produce nuclear fusion. However, follow-up observations on SIMP 0136+0933 revealed to be only 12.7 times Jupiter’s mass, making it too small to be a failed star.

This study comes as the scientific community has yet to 100 percent definitively confirm the existence of an exomoon, though several unconfirmed exomoon candidates have been identified. These include potential exomoon candidates orbiting WASP-49 b, Kepler-1625 b, Kepler-1708 b, and HD 206893 b. The reason exomoons are so hard to detect is simply due to their significantly smaller size compared to exoplanets and are analogous to microscopic dots in the bright glares of far-away stars.

What new insights into volcanic exo-Ios and other exomoons will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

Driving at speeds of up to 104 mph, Fraser Michael Bohm whipped around a section of Pacific Coast Highway known as Dead Man’s Curve, skidded out of control and killed four Pepperdine University sorority sisters, prosecutors allege.

In September — nearly three years since the fatal accident — he will stand trial on murder charges.

Bohm, 24, is charged with four counts of murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence stemming from the Oct. 17, 2023 crash in which he swerved onto the shoulder of the westbound PCH and slammed into three parked cars and the women, who were walking nearby.

Bohm’s defense team repeatedly has argued that there is inadequate evidence to sustain murder charges against him. They claim that his alleged speeding does not meet the legal standard for implied malice, meaning to act with a conscious disregard for human life. He was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash, according to his attorneys.

“The data shows fatal collisions are rare” over a 10-year period on the section of PCH where the crash took place, defense attorney Alan Jackson told the court Monday, arguing that Bohm could not have expected that death could result from his alleged speeding.

A judge rejected this line of reasoning at a November hearing and did so again Monday, moving to set a Sept. 8 trial date and a Sept. 2 pretrial hearing.

Prosecutors with the L.A. County district attorney’s office have argued that Bohm knew there were potentially life-threatening consequences to accelerating over 100 mph in the 45-mph zone of PCH where the accident took place. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson agreed, noting in November that Bohm told investigators he knew PCH “like the back of his hand” and that two of his best friends died in high-speed crashes.

On Monday, Bohm’s defense attorneys again tried to argue that Bohm was not aware his actions carried a high probability of death and also alleged that the prosecuting team unfairly withheld evidence relating to Bohm’s cellphone and vehicle speeds.

However, Rubinson ruled that the defense team was able to acquire sufficient evidence around traffic safety, collision history and enforcement activity along PCH without having to lobby prosecutors for the data. He said there were no evidentiary violations made by the district attorney’s office.

The victims of the crash were Alpha Phi sorority sisters Niamh Rolston, 20; Peyton Stewart, 21; Asha Weir, 21; and Deslyn Williams, 21, who all received their degrees posthumously.

The tragic accident sparked renewed calls for safety improvements along the 21-mile section of PCH in Malibu, one of the deadliest roads in the state, where 63 people have died since 2010. In July 2024, one person was killed and two injured in a head-on collision along the same stretch where the Pepperdine students died.

Traffic collisions dropped precipitously in the aftermath of the 2025 Palisades fire, when the road was closed for weeks and then reopened with strict speed limits. Nonetheless, as cars returned and speeding increased, accidents resumed. In February, a pedestrian became the latest Malibu fatality along an area of PCH near Point Dume.

Times staff writer Richard Winton and City News Service contributed to this report.