NASA flyby reveals lava lake, “Steeple Mountain” on Jupiter's moon Io

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Flybys of Io, one of Jupiter's moons and the most volcanically active world in our solar system, have revealed a lava lake and a towering feature called Steeple Mountain on the alien moon's surface.

NASA's Juno spacecraft, which first arrived to study Jupiter and its moons in 2016, It flew about 930 miles (1,500 km) from the surface of the lava world in December and February to capture the first detailed images of Io's northern latitudes.

It's been more than 20 years since a mission flew by Io, and the spacecraft's camera, called JunoCam, captured high-resolution images that showed active volcanic plumes, mountain peaks and a glassy-smooth lake of cooling lava.

“Io is full of volcanoes, and we discovered a few of them during the fight,” Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute, said in a statement.

“We also got some great close-ups and other data about the 200-kilometre (127-mile) long lava lake called Loki Patera,” he added. “There are amazing details showing these crazy islands embedded in the middle of a potential magma lake surrounded by hot lava.” “The specular reflection recorded by our instruments of the lake indicates that parts of Io’s surface are smooth like glass, reminiscent of obsidian created on Earth.”

Bolton announced the results on April 16 at General Assembly of the European Geophysical Union in Vienna. The new data paints a clearer picture of Io, something that has intrigued scientists for centuries.

“Other than Earth, it's the only place we see active magma volcanoes in our solar system,” Bolton said.

The team translated portions of Juno's data into animation that brings some of the infernal world's surface features, such as Loki Patera and Steeple Mountain, into dramatic focus.

Juno discovered the mountain with the help of sunlight shining on Io's surface, creating dramatic shadows that revealed an extremely sharp peak.

“We used scientific data to understand shadows and measure distance,” Bolton said. “It may not be quite right, but that's what it would be like if you went there. We call this Steeple Mountain, because it's so steep at its edge, it might be Io's version of the Matterhorn.”

Although the temperature of magma on Io reaches thousands of degrees, the moon's surface temperature is likely minus 148 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 100 degrees Celsius), Bolton said.

“When magma comes out as a volcano erupts, it freezes immediately and may form sulfur snow,” he said.

As an outdoor enthusiast, Bolton joked that Io's Steeple Mountain must be one of the skiing and snowboarding destinations in the solar system.

Meanwhile, Loki Patera is another place characterized by extreme temperatures and extreme cold. While the lava lake itself is likely very hot, the top of the islands is likely very cold, and a cold crust may surround the edges of the lake as well, Bolton said.

The mission team used Juno's microwave radiometer instrument to create maps of Io's surface, showing how incredibly smooth the surface is.

The terrain lacks outlines Because Io is so volcanically active that the world is constantly being inundated with lava, wiping out impact craters from its surface, according to a new study by a separate research team published in the journal. Sciences On April 18th.

The team also used the Atacama Large Array of millimeter/submillimeter telescopes in Chile to monitor gases in Io's atmosphere. The researchers found evidence of abundant sulfur and chlorine enrichment, suggesting that Io was likely volcanically active and released gases during most or all of its history over the past four billion years.

Io, first discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610, is slightly larger than our Moon, but unlike anywhere else in the solar system.

The moon's rocky surface is covered in hundreds of volcanoes, drawing comparisons to the fictional volcanic planet Mustafar and its lava rivers from the “Star Wars” films.

Scientists have observed Io's powerful volcanoes spewing lava fountains that reach dozens of miles high, and can be seen even with large telescopes on Earth, according to NASA.

The name of the moon comes from a Greek myth, in which a human woman turns into a cow during a marital dispute between the god Zeus and his wife Hera. The moniker is appropriate, because Io is in a constant tug of war, pulled by the immense gravity of Jupiter, as well as its two large moons Europa and Ganymede.

These three worlds pull on Io so violently that its surface bulges in and out by 330 feet (100 meters), like high and low tides on Earth, but this happens on solid ground, not an ocean. Bolton said he often refers to Io as “Jupiter's tortured moon” because of the ferocious forces it regularly encounters.

The forces exerted by Jupiter, Europa, and Ganymede on Io cause Io's surface to experience a tremendous amount of heat, which is why the Moon's surface remains below the surface like liquid rock. Researchers believe that the liquid rocks consist of either molten sulfur or silicate rocks, and volcanic eruptions help the moon relieve gravitational pressure.

Io has been studied by many spacecraft, including… Pioneer and Voyager investigations in the 1970s And the Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s. Now, Juno's discoveries are helping scientists understand the forces behind the Moon's volcanic activity like never before.