The JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno spacecraft has unveiled the truth about a massive dark spot appearing on the “hellish” moon of the Solar System.
According to Sci-News, new images sent back to Earth by the Juno spacecraft reveal a vast dark region on Jupiter’s moon Io, identified as multiple lava flows and volcanic deposits covering an area approximately 180×180 km.
Io is one of the largest moons of Jupiter, slightly larger than Earth’s Moon.
It was discovered in the early 17th century by the renowned astronomer Galileo Galilei, along with three other Jovian moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, forming the group known as the 4 “Galilean moons.”
The new image (left) shows a newly emerged supervolcano, while earlier infrared images revealed numerous volcanoes erupting simultaneously on Io – (Photo: NASA).
Io is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System, with over 400 active volcanoes.
The intense volcanic activity on Io is a result of tidal heating caused by the friction generated within this moon as it is pulled between Jupiter and its neighboring moons, Europa and Ganymede.
The newly discovered volcano is located just south of Io’s equator.
It appeared in an area that was previously a barren landscape in images captured during NASA’s Galileo mission in 1997, leading scientists to conclude that it must be a new supervolcano.
To the east of the new volcano, a red area is diffused from sulfur expelled by the volcano into space and then falling back onto Io’s surface.
To the west, two black lava flows have erupted, each approximately 100 km long.
At the farthest point of the flow, where the lava accumulates, high temperatures have caused surface material to vaporize, creating two layers of overlapping gray circular deposits.
From an altitude of over 2,500 km, the Juno spacecraft has clearly captured a total of nine gas plumes related to the active volcanic features on Io, along with other changes, such as new lava flows and other surface deposits.
This is an exciting discovery for NASA since Io is very special. In the Solar System, only this moon and Earth have confirmed strong volcanic activity at the present time.
Dynamic geological activities are an essential part of allowing a planet to develop and sustain life.
While life is not expected to be found on Io, a world where geological activity has gone overboard and turned hellish, it serves as a “laboratory” to supplement studies of other distant worlds.
