Even by the standards of iO, the most Volcanic Celestial Body in the Solar System, Recent Events Observed on the Jovian Moon Are Extreme.
Scientists with nasa’s juno mission have discovered a Volcanic Hot Spot in the Southern Hemisphere of Jupiter’s Moon IO. The hot spot is not only larger than earth’s lake superior, but it also also also belts out erptions six times the total energy of all the world’s power plants. The discovery of this Massive Feature Comes Courtesy of Juno’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) Instrance, Contributed by the Italian Space Agency.
“Juno Had two really close flybys of io during Juno’s Extended Mission“Said the mission’s Principal Investigator, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San San Antonio. “And while each flyby provided data on the tormented moon that exceed our expectations, the data from this latest – and more distant – Flyby real blew Oor Minds. This is the most powerful Volcanic Event Ever Recorded on the Most Volcanic World in Our Solar System – So that’s really saying saying something. “
The source of IO’s TORMENT: Jupiter. About the size of Earth’s Moon, IO is extramely close to the mammoth gas giant, and its alliptical orbit whips it Around Jupiter on the whole 42.5 hours. As the distance varies, so does the planet’s gravitational pull, which leads to the moon being relativezed. The Result: Immense energy from frichional heating that melts portions of iO’s interior, resulting in a seemingly endless series of lava plumes and ash venting into it Dle Its Surface.
Designed to Capture the Infrared Light . But since Nasa Extended Juno’s Mission, The team has also used the instrument to study the moons IOEuropa, GanymedeAnd callisto.
DURING Its Extended Mission, Juno’s Trajectory passes by iO every other orbit, frying over the same part of the moon each time. Previous, The spacecraft made close flybys of io in December 2023 and February 2024Getting Within about 930 Miles (1,500 kilometers) of its surface. The latest flyby took place on dec. 27, 2024, bringing the spacecraft with 46,200 miles (74,400 kilometers) of the moon, with the infrared instrument trained on IO’s southern hemisphere.
“JIRAM DETECTED Ann Event of Extreme Infrared Radiance-a Massive Hot Spot-In IO’s southern hemisport Astrophysics in Rome. “However, we have evidence what we detected is actually a fee closely spaced hot spots that emitted at the same time, suggestive of a Subsurface Vast Magma Chamber System. The data supports that this is the most intenses Volcanic Eruptation Ever Recorded on IO. “
The Jiram Science Team Estimates The As-Yet-Unmed Feature Spans 40,000 Square Miles (100,000 Square Kilometers). The Previous Record Holder was iO’s Loki PateraA Lava Lake of About 7,700 Square Miles (20,000 Square Kilometers). The total power value of the new hot spot’s radiance measured well Above 80 trillion watts.
The feature was also captured by the mission’s junocam visible light camera. The team compared junocam images from the two previous io flybys with that there the instrument collected on dec. 27. And while these most recent images are of lower resolution since Juno was farther away, the relative changes in surface coloring eround the newly discovered hot spot was clear. Such changes in io’s surface are knowledge in the planetary science communication to be associated with hot spots and volcanic activity.
An Eruption of this magnitude is likely to leave long-lived signatures. Other Large Eruptions on IO Have Created Varied Varied FEATURES, Such as Pyroclastic Deposits Ume Deposits rich in Sulfur and Sulfur Dioxide.
Juno will use an upcoming, more distant flyby of io on March 3 to look at the hot spot against and search for changes in the landscape. Earth-based observations of this region of the moon may also be possible.
“While it is Always great to witness events that rewrite the record books, this new hot spot can potentially do much more,” said bolton. “The Intriguing Feature Cold Improve Our Understanding of Volcanism not only on io but on other worlds as well.”
Nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory, a division of caltech in pasadena, california, manages the juno mission for the print Bolton, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San ANANTONIOO. Juno is part of nasa’s new frontiers program, which is managed at nasa’s marshall space flight center in huntsville, Alabama, for the Agency’s Science’s Science Mession Directoratte in Washington. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) Funded The Jovian Infrared Aurral Mapper. Lockheed Martin space in denver buy and operates the spacecraft. Various other institutions Around the US Provided Several of the other scientific instruments on Juno.
More information about juno is available at:
https://www.nasa.gov/juno
Dc agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
Nasa headquarters, washington
202-358-1600 / 202-358-1501
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.rhnson@nasa.gov
Deb Schmid
Southwest research institute, san antonio
210-522-2254
dschmid@swri.org
2025-010
