NASA scientists on Juno mission have discovered the most intense volcanic eruptions that ever happened on Jupiter’s moon, lo.
The agency published the news on its official website on 28 January, adding that the scientists discovered a volcanic hot spot in the southern hemisphere of lo that experiences eruptions six times the total energy of all the world’s power plants.
Images were captured with the help of Juno’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument.
Juno’s mission
Juno is a spacecraft that was initially sent into space to study Jupiter, but after the mission ended, NASA decided to retain it to explore space further.
Since then, the satellite has been performing flybys of three moons — Ganymede, Europa, and Io. It was on one of the flybys that it discovered this eruption which is a historic sight.
NASA stated that the eruptions are extreme, even for lo which is known to be the most volcanic body in space.
The mission’s principal investigator, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio said:
“Juno had two really close flybys of Io during Juno’s extended mission. And while each flyby provided data on the tormented moon that exceeded our expectations, the data from this latest — and more distant — flyby really blew our minds. This is the most powerful volcanic event ever recorded on the most volcanic world in our solar system — so that’s really saying something.”
According to NASA, the eruptions are due to Jupiter’s strong gravitational pull on lo, causing it to “squeeze” and melt on the inside resulting in the massive eruptions. The moon is said to have about 400 volcanoes scattered all over its surface.
More to come
Juno has captured stunning images with many details on lo’s surface, giving scientists an idea of the volcanic eruptions on the moon, but there’s more to come.
The spacecraft is scheduled to embark on a more distant flyby on March 3 to look at the hotspot again and search for changes in the landscape, with the possibility of Earth-based observations.
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