New Images of Jupiter’s Most Volcanic Moon Show Some Wild Changes On Its Surface

Amaze Lab

Io’s surface is a wild hellscape, as it is the most volcanically active place in our entire Solar System. Recently the University of Arizona’s Large Binocular Telescope aimed in its direction, revealing some incredible new views of this Jovian moon.

Transcript

00:00 This is Jupiter's moon Io.

00:06 Its surface is a wild hellscape as it's the most volcanically active place in our entire

00:11 solar system and recently the University of Arizona's Large Binocular Telescope aimed

00:16 in its direction, revealing some incredible new views of this Jovian moon.

00:20 This is the highest resolution photo of Io ever captured by an Earth-based telescope,

00:25 showing areas in 50-mile resolution, and the images are so detailed, it has actually allowed

00:30 astronomers to see changes in the region surrounding the Pele volcano, one of Io's biggest.

00:35 They say they have identified a deposit of material left behind by a volcanic plume,

00:39 but the deposits aren't even from Pele.

00:42 The researchers say they were left behind by another volcano.

00:45 Pilon Patera, Ashley Davies, lead researcher with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said

00:49 about the findings, "We interpret the changes as dark lava deposits and white sulfur dioxide

00:54 deposits originating from an eruption at Pilon Patera, which partially covered Pele's red

00:59 sulfur-rich plume deposit."

01:01 Io's insane volcanism is caused by its gravitational interaction between Jupiter and its other

01:06 moons, a constant tug-of-war match, causing Io to flex and deform, producing extreme amounts

01:11 of lava.

01:12 [music]

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