Massive Volcanic Outburst Spotted on Jupiter’s Hellish Moon Io

The most powerful volcanic eruptions in the Solar System occur not on Earth, however on Io, a sulfurous moon orbiting the planet Jupiter.

And currently, researchers from the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) in the United States have noticed a current outburst that’s been surprisingly productive, even for a hellish globe like Io.
In the room around Jupiter, a torus of plasma created and also fed by Io’s volcanic emissions grew considerably richer between July and September of last year. It persisted until December, showing the moon underwent a spate of volcanic activity that launched a massive quantity of material.

For something that’s simply a little bit greater than the Moon of Earth, Io is an absolute beast of volcanism. It´s bristling with volcanoes, with about 150 of the 400 known volcanoes erupting at any provided time, creating large lakes of molten lava.

This is all down to its connection with Jupiter: Io orbits on an elliptical path, leading to variations in the gravitational pull that alter the moon’s shape as it swings around the planet.

The other Galilean moons tug on Io also. This produces frictional heating inside Io, which after that spews out molten product from its inside.
What occurs to the volcanic emissions from Io then has an effect on Jupiter. Due to Io has no magnetic field of its own, the sulfur dioxide escapes, developing a torus of plasma which orbits Jupiter.

This is what feeds the frequent ultraviolet auroras that shimmer at Jupiter’s poles– the most powerful auroras in the Solar System.

This complex interplay is interesting in its own right, obviously. However, it can also assist inform other interactions of a similar nature that might be happening out there in the broader galaxy.

So PSI astronomer Jeff Morgenthaler has been keeping an eye on Io by utilizing the PSI’s Io Input/Output observatory (IoIO) because 2017.

Jupiter is massive and very brilliant, so IoIO utilizes a coronagraphic technique: effectively reducing the light beaming off Jupiter to make sure that Mogenthaler can observe the light produced by other things in the space around it, including the plasma torus.
This is how he observes that Io has a volcanic outburst yearly; and how he was able to observe that sulfur and sodium were being pumped into the torus in the fall of last year.

Nevertheless, while the quantities were huge, the torus was dimmer than other years. We do not know yet what this means; however, unraveling it could tell us something recent concerning the fiery dance between Jupiter and Io.

“This could be telling us something concerning the composition of the volcanic activity that created the outburst, or it could be informing us that the torus is more effective at ridding itself of product when more product is thrown into it,” Morgenthaler says.

We’ll have to wait to learn more; however, with IoIO on the ground and Juno presently orbiting Jupiter, additional information regarding the plasma torus will be coming in, significantly since Juno can determine changes in Jupiter’s plasma environment.

Additionally, Juno will be performing a flyby of Io in December 2023, so we are looking forward to a wealth of data on the smelly yellow moon.

“Juno measurements,” Morgenthaler states,”might be able to inform us if this volcanic outburst had a different composition than previous ones.”

Read the original article on Science Alert.

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