Nasa has revealed new particulars about Io, Jupiter’s third-largest moon and probably the most volcanic world in our photo voltaic system.
Io has over 400 lively volcanoes on its floor, creating gorgeous lava flows and eruptions that ship plumes into house.
A current discovery by Nasa’s Juno mission has helped resolve a 44-year-old thriller concerning the supply of Io’s intense volcanic exercise.
NASA posted on X: “New discoveries from our #JunoMission reveal the fiery coronary heart of Jupiter moon Io’s rage. (Yes, that’s an lively volcano erupting into house.)”
What powers Io’s volcanoes?
Io’s volcanoes are doubtless powered by separate magma chambers as an alternative of 1 giant magma ocean. According to the paper titled “Io’s tidal response precludes a shallow magma ocean”, revealed in Nature, this phenomenon explains the moon’s intense volcanic exercise.
Io’s volcanoes always erupt, spewing lava and plumes that form its distinctive floor. Although Io was found in 1610, its volcanic exercise was solely confirmed in 1979 by Nasa scientist Linda Morabito.
“Since Morabito’s discovery, planetary scientists have puzzled how the volcanoes had been fed from the lava beneath the floor,” Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton was quoted as saying to Nasa. “Was there a shallow ocean of white-hot magma fueling the volcanoes, or was their supply extra localised? We knew information from Juno’s two very shut flybys might give us some insights on how this tortured moon really labored,” he added.
Animated Tour of Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io
How did Nasa observe Io?
Nasa’s Voyager 1 spacecraft captured the primary pictures of Io’s volcanic plumes in 1979. About the identical dimension as Earth’s Moon, Io is consistently squeezed by its elliptical orbit round Jupiter. This squeezing, known as tidal flexing, creates intense warmth contained in the moon, melting its inside and inflicting eruptions.
During shut flybys in late 2023 and early 2024, Nasa’s Juno spacecraft used Doppler measurements to gather exact gravity information.This confirmed that Io does not have a world magma ocean as beforehand thought, however as an alternative has separate magma chambers powering its volcanoes.
“This fixed flexing creates immense vitality, which accurately melts parts of Io’s inside,” defined Bolton.
Understanding different moons
The findings lengthen past Io. “Juno’s discovery that tidal forces don’t all the time create international magma oceans does greater than immediate us to rethink what we find out about Io’s inside,” Juno co-investigator Ryan Park was quoted as saying to NASA. “It has implications for our understanding of different moons, akin to Enceladus and Europa, and even exoplanets and super-Earths,” he added.
Future missions
Juno continues its mission, not too long ago finishing its 66th science flyby over Jupiter on November 24. Its subsequent shut strategy, scheduled for December 27, will convey it 2,175 miles above Jupiter’s cloud tops. Since coming into the planet’s orbit in 2016, Juno has travelled over 645 million miles.
