Huge Lava Lake Spotted on Moon Orbiting Jupiter

Business Standard ^ | June 7, 2015 | A US radio telescope has captured images of an enormous lava lake on the surface of Io, one of the

[lbryce]

A US radio telescope has captured images of an enormous lava lake on the surface of Io, one of the moons orbiting the planet Jupiter, the Puerto Rico Astronomy Society (PRAS) reported.

"The new images clearly show an enormous lake of lava, fed from the subsoil and which exists permanently," PRAS vice president, professor and scientist Armando Caussade said in a statement.

The Large Binocular Telescope Observatory in Arizona was the one that spotted the mass of lava in the region known as Loki Patera, a volcanic pit measuring approximately 200 kilometers (124 miles) in diameter.

PRAS spokesman Juan Villafañe said the size of the lake "is much larger than any of the five permanent lava lakes that exist on the Earth", since "the ones on our planet only measure some hundreds of meters across".

[lbryce]

Would make for a great Obama retirement location.

[SkyDancer]

Pictures?

[lbryce]

I wanted to see pictures, as well. I went to ‘Google Images’ put in “Huge Lava Lake Spotted on Moon Orbiting Jupiter” and several variations of, but none turned up.

[a fool in paradise]

How’s the golf?

[dfwgator]

Liquid Hot Magma.

[cripplecreek]

The Juno spacecraft is due to arrive at Jupiter next summer and we might get some pics but I can’t say for sure. Juno is intended to study Jupiter’s atmosphere.

[cripplecreek]

What I get searching "lava lake - Loki Patera

[SkyDancer]

I’m waiting on those pictures of Pluto ... that should be something.

[ElkGroveDan]

Discovered by the space probe Voyager 1 of the NASA in 1979, the moon Io is roughly the size of the moon orbiting the Earth and, according to PRAS, it has "the greatest volcanic activity" in the solar system.

Ummmmm....no.... Io was discovered by Galileo in 1610

[cripplecreek]

Looks like this lake was actually photographed by Voyager but the craft was just passing though so we didn’t really know what it was.

[ETL]

[ETL]

IO, Jupiter Moon, by GuilleBot

[ETL]

Fire Mountain Featured on October 13, 2011 The volcano Pele erupts over the limb of Jupiter's
moon Io in this composite image from the Galileo spacecraft.The plume rises about 200 miles
(300 km) above the surface of Io, which is coated in sulfur compounds from hundreds of volcanoes.
[NASA/JPL/USGS]

[lbryce]

Very well done. I should have read through the article and spotted ‘Loki Patera’ the way you did.

[cripplecreek]

I think it would be very cool to stand on the surface of Io. Probably one of the most alien places in our solar system.

[lbryce]

Scroll down

I have often fantasized about choosing the top 10 most fascinating spots in the solar system. Standing on Hyperion and Io would be one and two. Followed by standing on the peak of Olympus Mons on Mars, tallest peak in the solar System. Number four would be hovering over the Hexagon on Saturn's North Pole.

The rest would take a lot more time to list.

Io

Comparative size of Olympus Mons

Olympus Mons on Mars: Tallest Peak in the Solar System

Seven Wonders of the Solar System

Hexagon on Saturn's North Pole

[cripplecreek]

I think it would be cool to make a few orbits of mars on Phobos.

[central_va]

Saturn needs a pastie.

[jmacusa]

The fairway is rough on Jupiter. In fact there is no fairway. Jupiter is a gas giant. It has no surface at all.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Over time, because the solidified lava is denser than the still-molten magma below, this crust can flounder. During an eruption, a wave of foundering crust spreads out across the patera at the rate of about 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) per day, until the entire lake crust has been resurfaced. Another eruption would begin once the new crust has cooled and thickened enough for it to no longer be buoyant over the molten lava.