Juno probe provides new insights into volcanism on Jupiter's moon Io
Io is considered to be the celestial body with the strongest volcanism in the solar system. NASA's Juno probe observed Jupiter's moon more closely.
An instrument on board NASA's Juno spacecraft has captured two volcanic plumes rising above the horizon of Jupiter's moon Io. The image was taken on February 3 from a distance of approximately 3800 kilometers.
(Image: NASA)
NASA's Juno probe has provided new insights into the volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon Io with its infrared instrument JIRAM (Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper). As researchers report in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment, the data indicate widespread lava lakes on Jupiter's moon. The new data provide new insights into the volcanic processes taking place there.
During two close flybys in May and October 2023, JIRAM was able to take detailed infrared images of Io's surface. In May, the probe approached the surface at an altitude of 35,000 kilometers, and in October, the flyby took place at an altitude of just 13,000 kilometers. The probe took several hundred images each time. According to NASA, these show bright rings around numerous hotspots. The scientists estimate that around three percent of the moon's surface is covered by lava lakes.
Huge lava lakes in which magma rises and falls
The infrared data also provide clues to the processes beneath the surface. The lava lakes appear to be covered by a solid crust that rises and falls cyclically. At the edges, the crust breaks up and exposes the underlying lava. The researchers draw parallels with lava lakes that have been observed in Hawaii. Io is considered the most volcanically active world in the solar system. Scientists assume that Io is stretched and squeezed like an accordion by the massive Jupiter and its neighboring moons, which favors volcanism.
"We now have an idea of what the most common volcanism on Io looks like: huge lava lakes in which magma rises and falls," explains Alessandro Mura from the National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome in a NASA statement. Further data from the most recent flybys in December 2023 and February 2024 are still being analyzed.
Probe on its way since 2016
Io, which is slightly larger than Earth's moon, was already observed by Galileo Galilei in 1610. NASA's Voyager 1 space probe recorded a volcanic eruption on the moon for the first time in 1979. Juno was launched towards the Jupiter system in 2016 and was supposed to conduct research there until 2018. As things stand, however, the mission will be extended until 2025.
(mki)