Glass-smooth NASA discovers cooling lava lake on Io | Jupiter | Europa | Ganymede

[The Epoch Times, April 25, 2024](Comprehensive report by Epoch Times reporter Li Yan) A close-up taken by NASA’s “Juno” spacecraft shows people the Jupiter moon Io (Io) A huge lake of lava with a cooled surface that looks as smooth as glass.

The spacecraft flew within 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the volcanic surface of Io in December 2023 and January 2024, conducting the closest observations of Jupiter’s innermost large moon. Io is home to hundreds of active volcanoes and is the most volcanically active world in the solar system.

New images show the 127-mile-long (200 kilometers) Loki Patera lava lake on the surface of Io. Scientists have been observing this lava lake for decades. It sits above a chamber of magma beneath Io’s surface. Scott Bolton, principal investigator of the Juno mission, said at a press conference at the European Geophysical Union General Assembly in Vienna on April 16 that the cooling lava in the center of the lake was pushed to the edge. Possibly surrounded by molten magma.

“The specular reflections from the lake recorded by our instruments indicate that parts of Io’s surface are as smooth as glass, reminiscent of the volcanically produced obsidian glass on Earth,” Bolton said.

The interior of the lava lake is dotted with rugged rocky islands. “Amazing detail shows that these crazy islands are embedded in the middle of a potential magma lake with red-hot molten rock at the edge,” Bolton said.

“Besides Earth, this is the only place in the solar system where we see active magma volcanoes.” Bolton said that although the temperature of the magma on Io reaches thousands of degrees, its surface temperature may be minus 148 degrees Fahrenheit ( minus 100 degrees Celsius).

Juno’s instruments have determined that Io’s surface is smoother than that of Jupiter’s other three Galilean moons: Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Io is slightly larger than Earth’s moon, and its unmelted surface is mostly covered in yellow sulfur and sulfur dioxide.

“When a volcano erupts and the magma comes out, it freezes immediately and can form sulfur snow,” Bolton said.

A new study published April 18 in the journal Science by an independent team of researchers shows that Io’s terrain lacks contours because Europa is so volcanically active that lava is constantly re-covering the moon. Moon’s surface, thereby erasing the impact craters on its surface.

The research team also used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile to observe gases in Io’s atmosphere. The researchers found evidence of abundant sulfur and chlorine. This suggests that Io has likely been volcanically active and releasing these gases for most or all of its past 4 billion years of history.

First discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610, Io is only slightly larger than the moon, but it is unlike anywhere else in the solar system.

Bolton said he often describes Io as “Jupiter’s tortured moon” because it is constantly being torn apart by Jupiter, Europa and Ganymede. This force is so powerful that Io’s surface bulges 330 feet (100 meters) high and generates tremendous heat. This is why Io’s underground is in a state of liquid rock.

Researchers believe the liquid rock is made of molten sulfur or silicate rock, and that volcanic eruptions help Io relieve pressure. According to NASA, their eruptions are sometimes so powerful that they can be seen with telescopes on Earth.

Io has been studied by multiple spacecraft so far, including the Pioneer and Voyager probes in the 1970s and the Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s. Galileo spacecraft. Now, revelations from Juno are helping scientists understand what’s driving Io’s volcanism like never before.

Juno continues to fly past Jupiter, collecting data on its violent polar cyclones. Each cyclone is as wide as the continental United States. The spacecraft will complete its 61st flyby of Jupiter on May 12.

(This article refers to Live Science and CNN reports)

Editor in charge: Lin Yan#