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A scientist has concluded that Jupiter’s moon ‘Io’, which is the most geologically active object in the solar system, witnessed a record-breaking volcanic eruption last year.
Physicist Dr. Jeff Morgenthaler of the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) has been monitoring volcanic activity on Io every year since 2017. He said Jupiter’s moon shows some sort of eruption every year, but the largest eruptions so far have been recorded in autumn of 2022 .
Lava appears on one of Jupiter’s moons, and Io is the third largest of Jupiter’s four large moons, which is slightly larger than Earth’s moon.
Like the other Galilean moons, it was discovered by the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610 and named after Io, a priestess of Hera and lover of Zeus in ancient Greek mythology.
Io is dotted with more than 400 active volcanoes, many of which spew plumes of sulfur and sulfur dioxide that can rise up to 300 miles above the lunar surface. The volcanoes are the result of the intense “tidal forces” — or gravity — that Io feels from its host planet, as well as from two of Galilean’s other moons, Europa and Ganymede.
In his study, Dr. Morgenthaler used data from the Planetary Science Institute’s Input/Output Observatory (IoIO), located near Benson, Arizona.
The observatory uses so-called coronagraphic technology, dimming the bright light from Jupiter so that faint gases can be imaged near the gas giant. This made it possible to monitor the brightness of gases in a cloud or “nebula” around Jupiter that started between July and September 2022 and ended last month.
Dr Morgenthaler said that between July and September of last year, two of the gases IoIO detected – sodium and ionized sulfur – began to clear and remained that way until December.
However, the ionized sulfur — which forms a donut-shaped circular structure surrounding Jupiter known as “Io plasma neutrals” — wasn’t as bright in the recent outburst as it was in previous years.
Dr Morgenthaler said: ‘This could tell us something about the composition of the volcanic activity that causes the eruption.
Or it could tell us that the torus is more efficient at getting rid of material when more material is thrown into it.”
The physicist explains that the observations have profound implications for NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016.
Many of the spacecraft’s instruments are sensitive to changes in the plasma environment around Jupiter and Io, which can be traced directly to volcanic activity on Io, as observed by IoIO.
The Juno spacecraft flew past Europa and is now slowly approaching Io, to fly close to it later this year.
Dr. Morgenthaler added: “Juno’s measurements may be able to tell us whether this volcanic eruption had a different composition than its predecessors.
