Symbol: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Symbol processing by way of Andrea Good fortune (CC BY)It’s now not a large moon relative to a few of its neighbors, however Jupiter’s Io is exceedingly lively, with volcanoes by way of the masses spewing lava plumes dozens of miles above its floor, according to NASA. Infrared tech aboard the distance company’s Juno probe mapped two such eruptions in February, returning precious knowledge at the mysterious happenings underneath Io’s floor. Researchers shared their insights at the topic in a paper printed remaining week.Florida Circle of relatives Takes NASA to Court docket Over House Broken by way of House TrashFrom round 2,400 miles away, the probe’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) software “published that the entire floor of Io is roofed by way of lava lakes contained in caldera-like options,” defined Alessandro Mura, a Juno co-investigator from Rome’s Nationwide Institute for Astrophysics. On Earth, a caldera is a crater shaped by way of a collapsing volcano. Io is set 1 / 4 the dimensions of Earth by way of diameter, and just a little larger than Earth’s moon.“Within the area of Io’s floor wherein we’ve essentially the most whole knowledge, we estimate about 3% of it’s coated by way of such a molten lava lakes,” mentioned Mura. Juno’s JIRAM instrument got here by means of Italy’s house company, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana.
In step with Mura, lead creator of the Io paper, the probe’s flybys disclose the most typical form of volcanism on Jupiter’s freshest moon — “monumental lakes of lava the place magma is going up and down.” He added, “The lava crust is pressured to wreck towards the partitions of the lake, forming the everyday lava ring noticed in Hawaiian lava lakes. The partitions are most probably masses of meters top, and is the reason why magma is usually now not noticed spilling out.”
Researchers are nonetheless poring over the information accumulated by way of Juno’s Io flybys, which passed off in February 2024 and December 2023.
