Tag Archive for 'Io'

Hay et al for the first time investigate moon-moon tides in Jupiter’s Galilean moons and show that they can cause significant heating through the excitation of high-frequency resonant tidal waves in their subsurface oceans. Image credit: Galileo Project / Voyager Project / NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Galilean Moons of Jupiter Could Be Warming Each Other

Sep 11, 2020 by News Staff

In a process called tidal heating, gravitational push and pull from Jupiter’s Galilean moons — Europa, Ganymede, Io and Callisto — and the...

An artist’s impression of an exo-Io undergoing extreme mass loss. The hidden exomoon is enshrouded in an irradiated gas cloud shining in bright orange-yellow, as would be seen with a sodium filter. Patches of sodium clouds are seen to trail the lunar orbit, possibly driven by the gas giant’s magnetosphere. Image credit: Thibaut Roger / University of Bern.

Astronomers Find Evidence for Volcanic Moon Orbiting Jupiter-Like Exoplanet WASP-49b

Aug 30, 2019 by News Staff

A volcanically active rocky exomoon may orbit WASP-49b, a hot gas giant approximately 550 light-years away in the constellation of Lepus. An artist’s...

JunoCam acquired three images of Io prior to when it entered eclipse, all showing a volcanic plume illuminated beyond the terminator; the image shown here, reconstructed from red, blue and green filter images, was acquired at 12:20 p.m. GMT on December 21, 2018; Juno was 186,411 miles (300,000 km) from Io. Image credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS.

Juno Observes Volcanic Plume on Io

Jan 3, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Juno orbiter has captured images of a volcanic plume on Jupiter’s moon Io during the mission’s 17th flyby of the giant planet. JunoCam acquired...

This image from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft shows a volcanic explosion on Io. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizon.

Juno Spots New Active Volcano on Jupiter Moon’s Io

Jul 16, 2018 by News Staff

Infrared data collected by NASA’s Juno spacecraft point to a new heat source in the southern hemisphere of Io — Jupiter’s third-largest moon...

Juno Images Show Unusual ‘Footprint’ of Io and Ganymede on Jupiter’s Aurorae

Jul 6, 2018 by News Staff

High-resolution infrared images from the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) on NASA’s Juno spacecraft show that, rather than casting one ‘shadow’...

This image of Jupiter, Io and Europa was taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on September 1, 2017 at 6:14 p.m. EDT (3:14 p.m. PDT), and then processed by citizen scientist Roman Tkachenko. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Roman Tkachenko.

NASA’s Juno Orbiter Observes Jupiter and Two Galilean Moons

Oct 8, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

Juno captured this color portrait of the edge of Jupiter and two of the gas giant’s largest moons — Io and Europa — as it performed its eighth...

This global view of Io was obtained by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft on 19 September 1997 at a range of more than 500,000 km (310,000 miles). In this image, deposits of sulfur dioxide frost appear in white and grey hues while yellowish and brownish hues are probably due to other sulfurous materials. Bright red materials and ‘black’ spots with low brightness mark areas of recent volcanic activity and are usually associated with high temperatures and surface changes. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

Astronomers Create Detailed Map of Loki Patera, Most Active Volcanic Site on Jupiter’s Moon Io

May 11, 2017 by News Staff

Taking advantage of a rare orbital alignment between Jupiter’s moons Io and Europa, a research team led by scientists at the University of California...

This composite image showing Jupiter (center) and three of its moons -- Callisto (left), Io, and Ganymede -- was taken by OSIRIS-REx’s PolyCam instrument. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona.

OSIRIS-REx Takes Its First Images of Jupiter and Galilean Moons

Feb 17, 2017 by News Staff

During asteroid search operations, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft snapped several images of Jupiter and its Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede. This...

This color view from NASA’s Juno spacecraft shows atmospheric features on Jupiter, including the Great Red Spot. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS.

Juno Beams Back First In-Orbit Images of Jupiter, Galilean Moons

Jul 13, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Juno’s low-resolution in-orbit images of Jupiter and three of its largest moons — Europa, Io, and Ganymede — have made their way back to...

This image from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft shows Io. There are rugged mountains several miles high, layered materials forming plateaus, and many irregular depressions called volcanic calderas. Several of the dark, flow-like features correspond to hot spots, and may be active lava flows. There are no landforms resembling impact craters, as the volcanism covers the surface with new deposits much more rapidly than the flux of comets and asteroids can create large impact craters. The picture is centered on the side of Io that always faces away from Jupiter; north is to the top. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

Jupiter’s Moon Io May Have Subsurface Magma Ocean

Sep 14, 2015 by News Staff

Io is the Solar System’s most volcanically active planetary body. However, concentrations of volcanic activity are displaced from where they are expected...

Astronomers Spot Huge Lava Lake at Volcano Loki on Io

May 26, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists analyzing high-resolution images from the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory in Arizona have discovered an enormous lava lake on Io, the...

The Hubble image on the left (unlabeled at top left, labeled at bottom left) shows the beginning of the event, which took place on January 24, 2015. From left to right the moons Callisto and Io are above Jupiter's cloud tops. The shadows from Europa (not seen in the image), Callisto, and Io are strung out from left to right. Near the end of the event, approximately 42 minutes later (right-side image), Europa has entered the frame at lower left. Slower-moving Callisto is above and to the right of Europa. Fastest-moving Io is approaching the eastern limb of the planet; its shadow is no longer visible on Jupiter. Europa's shadow is toward the left side of the image, and Callisto's shadow to the right. Missing from the sequence is the moon Ganymede, which was outside Hubble's field of view and too far from Jupiter in angular separation to be considered part of the conjunction. The moons in these photos have distinctive colors. The ancient, cratered surface of Callisto is brownish; the smooth icy surface of Europa is yellow-white; and the volcanic, sulfur-dioxide surface of Io is orange. The apparent fuzziness of some of the shadows depends on the moons' distances from Jupiter. The farther away a moon is from the planet, the softer the shadow, because the shadow is more spread out across the disk. The images were taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 in visible light. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA.

Hubble Sees Triple Transit of Galilean Moons

Feb 6, 2015 by News Staff

The Wide Field Camera 3 on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a rare look at three of Galilean moons – Io, Callisto, and Europa –...

Left: the image of Io taken in the near-infrared with adaptive optics at the Gemini North telescope on August 29, 2013. Image credit: Katherine de Kleer / UC Berkeley / Gemini Observatory / AURA. Right: NASA's Galileo spacecraft acquired this image of Io in July 1999. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

Scientists Capture Three Massive Volcanic Eruptions on Io

Aug 5, 2014 by News Staff

An international team of scientists, using the W. M. Keck Observatory’s 10-meter Keck II telescope, the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea and the...

Scientists Produce First Complete Geologic Map of Io

Mar 20, 2012 by News Staff

A team of scientists has produced the first complete global geologic map of the Jovian satellite. Geologic Map of Io (USGS / ASU) The map, published by...