- 4444 - “IO” JUPITER'S MOON - an active volcanic world? - Close flybys of Io, one of Jupiter’s moons and the most volcanically active world in our solar system, have revealed a lava lake and a towering feature called “Steeple Mountain” on the moon’s alien surface.
------------------------- 4444 - “IO” JUPITER'S MOON - an active volcanic world?
- The Juno spacecraft, which first arrived to
study Jupiter and its moons in 2016, flew within roughly 930 miles of the lava
world’s surface in December and February to capture the first detailed images
of Io’s northern latitudes.
-
- The spacecraft’s camera, “JunoCam”,
captured high-resolution images that showcased active volcanic plumes, mountain
peaks and a glass-smooth lake of cooling lava.
Io is simply littered with volcanoes.
-
- Great close-ups and other data was
collected on a 127-mile-long lava lake called “Loki Patera”. These islands were
embedded in the middle of a potentially magma lake rimmed with hot lava. The specular reflection recorded of the lake
suggests parts of Io’s surface are as smooth as glass, reminiscent of
volcanically created obsidian glass on Earth.
-
- Other than the Earth, it’s the only place
that we see active magma volcanoes going on in our solar system. Juno detected this mountain with the help of
the sun shining on Io’s surface, which created dramatic shadows that revealed a
very sharp peak.
-
- “Europa Clipper” spacecraft will carry a
special message when it launches in October 2024 and heads toward Jupiter's
other moon “Europa”. The moon shows strong evidence of an ocean under its icy
crust, with more than twice the amount of water of all of Earth's oceans
combined. A triangular metal plate, seen here, will honor that connection to
Earth.
-
- Although the temperature of the magma on Io
amounts to thousands of degrees, the surface of the moon is likely minus 148
degrees Fahrenheit. When the magma comes
out as a volcano goes off, it immediately freezes and probably makes sulfur
snow.
-
- While the lava lake itself is likely very
hot, the top of the islands are probably very cold, and a cold crust may rim
the edges of the lake as well.
-
- Juno’s Microwave Radiometer instrument to
create maps of Io’s surface, showing how incredibly smooth it is. The topography lacks contours because Io is
so volcanically active that the world is constantly resurfaced by lava, which
erases impact craters from its surface.
-
- The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter
Array of telescopes in Chile was used to observe gases in Io’s atmosphere. The
researchers found evidence of an abundance of enriched sulfur and chlorine,
which suggests that Io has likely been volcanically active and releasing the
gases for most or all of its history over the past 4 billion years.
-
- Io, first discovered by Galileo Galilei in
1610, is just slightly larger than our moon, but it’s unlike anywhere else in
the solar system. The rocky moon’s
surface is covered with hundreds of volcanoes.
-
- Scientists have observed Io’s powerful
volcanoes spewing lava fountains that are dozens of miles high and can even be
seen with large telescopes on Earth.
-
- The moon’s name came from a Greek myth in
which a mortal woman is turned into a cow during a marital dispute between the
god Zeus and his wife Hera. The moniker is a fitting one, because Io is in a
constant state of tug-of-war, pulled by the massive gravity of Jupiter, as well
as its large moons Europa and Ganymede.
-
- These three worlds tug so violently on Io
that its surface bulges in and out by 330 feet, like high and low tides on
Earth, but it’s happening on solid ground, rather than in an ocean.
-
- The forces exerted on Io by Jupiter, Europa
and Ganymede cause Io’s surface to face a tremendous amount of heat, which is
why the moon’s subsurface remains like liquid rock. Researchers believe that
liquid rock is either made of molten sulfur or silicate rock, and volcanic
eruptions help the moon relieve the gravitational pressure.
-
- Io has been studied by multiple spacecraft,
including the Pioneer and Voyager probes in the 1970s and the Galileo
spacecraft in the 1990s. And now, Juno’s revelations are helping scientists to
understand the forces behind the moon’s volcanic activity like never before.
-
-
April 27, 2023
“IO” JUPITER'S
MOON - an active volcanic world? 4444
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--------------------- --- Saturday, April 27,
2024
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