The Solar System's Most Volcanic Moon (Io) Just Erupted With A South Pole Lake Of Lava, The Size Of Our Lake Superior!

Io is a violent little world -- stretched and squeezed regularly -- by the massive Jovian gravitational forces, and bombarded by its punishing radiation.

The scale of this lava flow/volcano is astonishing: the whole orb is only about one-sixth the size of Earth (about like our Moon), so that Lake Superior sized flow covers an area proportionately equal to Texas, on our home world. That's. . . just. . . surreal. Here's the scoop:

. . .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 belches out eruptions 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) instrument, contributed by the Italian Space Agency. . . .

. . .About the size of Earth’s Moon, Io is extremely close to the mammoth gas giant [Jupiter], and its elliptical orbit whips it around Jupiter once every 42.5 hours. As the distance varies, so does the planet’s gravitational pull, which leads to the moon being relentlessly squeezed. The result: immense energy from frictional heating that melts portions of Io’s interior, resulting in a seemingly endless series of lava plumes and ash venting into its atmosphere from the estimated 400 volcanoes that riddle its surface. . . .

[All of this jaw-slacking celestial science is the product of NASA's vision, in extending the Juno mission.]

To be certain, that's one baking hot spot, then! Wow. . . and by 2030 or so, ESA's Europa Clipper will be circling another moon out there, looking for water lakes / life -- under its ice-shelves. So both extremes -- and all in one neighborhood. Grin. Onward.

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