‘Heart of Jupiter moon Io’s rage’: Nasa captures active volcano erupting into space – Newz9

Nasa has revealed new particulars about Io, Jupiter’s third-largest moon and essentially the most volcanic world in our photo voltaic system.
Io has over 400 active volcanoes on its floor, creating beautiful lava flows and eruptions that ship plumes into space.
A latest discovery by Nasa’s Juno mission has helped resolve a 44-yr-outdated thriller in regards to the supply of Io’s intense volcanic exercise.
NASA posted on

What powers Io’s volcanoes?

Io’s volcanoes are probably powered by separate magma chambers as a substitute of one massive 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 wondered how the volcanoes were fed from the lava beneath the surface,” Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton was quoted as saying to Nasa. “Was there a shallow ocean of white-scorching magma fueling the volcanoes, or was their supply extra localized? We knew information from Juno’s two very shut flybys might give us some insights on how this tortured moon really labored,” he added.

How did NASA observe Io?

Nasa’s Voyager 1 spacecraft captured the first images of Io’s volcanic plumes in 1979. About the same size as Earth’s Moon, Io is constantly squeezed by its elliptical orbit around Jupiter. This squeezing, called tidal flexingcreates intense heat inside the moon, melting its interior and causing eruptions.
During close flybys in late 2023 and early 2024, Nasa’s Juno spacecraft used Doppler measurements to collect precise gravity data.This showed that Io doesn’t have a global magma ocean as previously thought, but instead has separate magma chambers powering its volcanoes.
“This constant flexing creates immense energy, which literally melts portions of Io’s interior,” explained Bolton.

Understanding other moons

The findings extend beyond Io. “Juno’s discovery that tidal forces do not always create global magma oceans does more than prompt us to rethink what we know about Io’s interior,” Juno co-investigator Ryan Park was quoted as saying to NASA. “It has implications for our understanding of different moons, comparable 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 method, 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 traveled over 645 million miles.