It's really astounding that lava lakes cover this terrible moon's whole surface.
The moon of Jupiter The volcanoes of Europa, the planet with the highest volcanic activity in the solar system, are arranged in a row like the spines of a porcupine. About 150 of the 400 or so active volcanoes on Io are erupting at any given time. It erupts gas and lava continuously, like a true factory of volcanic waste.
Furthermore, we now have a better understanding of just how hot and turbulent Europa can get thanks to the Juno probe's Jupiter Infrared Aurora Mapper (JIRAM) images of Jupiter and its surroundings.
"The high spatial resolution of the JIRAM infrared imagery, combined with Juno's vantage point during the flyby, reveals that the entire surface of Io is covered by lava lakes that contain crater-like features," stated Alessandro Mula, an astronomer at the National Institute of Astrophysics in Italy.
"In the area of the Io surface for which we have the most complete data, we estimate that about 3% of the area is covered by one of the lava lakes."
A complicated tug-of-war caused by gravity has Europa as its victim. Since this moon's orbit around Jupiter is not perfectly round, the attraction between the planet and moon varies over time. Furthermore, Europa is subject to a gravitational pull from Callisto, Europa, and Europa, the other three Galilean moons of Jupiter.
The pressure within Io is the outcome of all these opposing gravitational pulls, and this pressure creates heat that erupts as volcanic activity. This tiny moon has a lot of heat.
The physics of compressing and stretching the interior of Io, as well as how all of this affects Jupiter and the massive gas planet itself, are already well understood. However, the behavior of volcanic activity on Io's surface is still mostly unknown.
Thankfully, this was within the jurisdiction of the Juno. Using its instruments, the probe is flying past several moons as it investigates Jupiter's space, gathering data that is far closer and more direct than ever available. The probe recently conducted a series of extremely near flights over Europa, providing startling new details about the sulfur-containing moon.
We observed lakes of glistening lava and plumes from actual volcanic explosions. Scientists have now examined some of this data, especially the JIRAM-captured infrared scans that show the thermal signature of Io's surface.
This allowed scientists to notice that the lava lake was produced by a high lake wall surrounding the bowl-shaped patra where the lava was deposited, and in the middle of the lava lake was a ring of exposed liquid lava that overlapped at the border. In the end, this displays the predominant types of volcanic activity on Io.
"We now know what the most common type of volcanic activity on Io isto is: huge lava lakes flowing up and down magma," said Mura. “
"The usual lava rings found in Hawaii's lava lakes were created when the lava crust was pushed to crack against the lake wall. The reason lava typically doesn't flow across the surface of the satellites and pour out of the mantle is because these barriers can reach heights of hundreds of meters.
This implies that the lake's undulations were created by lava entering Patra from a subsurface magma reservoir and discharging in the same manner. As it moved up and down, the center crust brushed against the lake's sides, shattering their edges and encircling the body of water with a ring of lava.
Another idea is that the lava is pressing down on the edge of the earth's crust, causing it to sink and form another ring.
The Southwest Research Institute's chief researcher for Juno, Scott Bolton, stated: "These observations show fascinating new information about the volcanic processes of Io."
"Combining these new results with Juno's long-term monitoring and mapping of Io's never-before-seen activity in the North and South Poles, JIRAM will be one of the most valuable tools for understanding how this tormented world works."
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