Expertise Loki Patera Lava Lake on Jupiter’s moon

Liputan6.com, Jakarta – The area probe belonging to the USA Aeronautics and Area Administration (NASA), in June, succeeded in making distinctive choices when it crossed the floor of the moon Io. Jupiter in December 2023 and January 2024. This spacecraft found a whole bunch of lively volcanoes, together with chilly lava lakes.

Launching a NASA web page on Friday (28/06/2024), this chilly lava lake on the floor of Io is named Loki Patera. Loki Patera first noticed by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1979.

At the moment, the lake was like a big darkish pool, surrounded by lighter land. Scientists initially thought that Loki Patera was a meteor crater.

Nevertheless, additional investigation confirmed that it was truly a lava lake. Loki Patera is the biggest lava lake within the photo voltaic system.

Its measurement is about 21,000 sq. kilometers, or about 1,000,000 instances the floor space of ​​the common lava lake on Earth. This lake has an oval form and is surrounded by rocks a number of kilometers excessive.

The floor of Loki Patera is roofed with a layer of chilly, stable lava. This lava has a temperature of about 200 levels Celsius, a lot cooler than lava on Earth.

That is brought on by Io’s skinny ambiance, which doesn’t retain warmth effectively. Regardless of the chilly, Loki Patera remains to be a really lively place.

The lava within the lake is consistently shifting and altering. A number of small islands seem and sink on the floor.

Io’s sizzling stream is 100 to 200 kilometers huge. It’s doable that the warmth of Ionia was launched via calm lava lakes and never via eruptions.

Loki Patera’s lava stream comes from Io’s mantle. The mantle is the layer beneath the Moon’s crust that’s manufactured from molten rock.

Warmth from Io’s core melts rocks within the mantle, and the ensuing magma rises to the floor via volcanoes. Specialists imagine that this lake releases poisonous gases into the ambiance, which contributes to the thick layer that covers the moon.

Lava from Loki Patera may additionally change the composition of Io’s floor, and will assist form the moon’s distinctive panorama.