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Recent Volcanic Activity on Jupiter’s Moon Io Is Confusing and Exciting Scientis...

 1 year ago
source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/science/io-volcano-eruption.html
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Science|A New View of the Most Explosive Moon in the Solar System

A New View of the Most Explosive Moon in the Solar System

Recent strange activity around Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io, confused and excited scientists.

An infrared image shows Jupiter's moon Io, a red ball half in shadow, dotted with bright spots that indicate volcanic activity.
The Juno spacecraft’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper imager captured this view of Jupiter’s moon Io as it flew by at a distance of about 50,000 miles on July 5.Credit...NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM
An infrared image shows Jupiter's moon Io, a red ball half in shadow, dotted with bright spots that indicate volcanic activity.
Jan. 25, 2023
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Io, the third largest of Jupiter’s moons, is caught in a pressurized, explosive dance.

Orbiting near Ganymede and Europa, two of the other largest Jovian moons, and the planet itself, Io’s mineral composition is constantly pulled and pushed by gravity, creating frictional heat deep inside the moon. This makes it extremely volcanically active — there are hundreds of volcanoes and extensive networks of lava flows marking Io’s surface.

“It’s being squeezed like an anger ball,” said Jeff Morgenthaler, an astrophysicist at the Planetary Science Institute.

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