Posted on 02/03/2025 4:40:45 PM PST by Red Badger
A massive hotspot — larger the Earth’s Lake Superior — can be seen just to the right of Io’s south pole in this annotated image taken by the JIRAM infrared imager aboard NASA’s Juno on December 27, 2024, during the spacecraft’s flyby of the Jovian moon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has uncovered an immense volcanic hot spot on Jupiter’s moon Io, surpassing any previously recorded eruptions in the solar system.
This fiery inferno, detected by the JIRAM instrument, radiates over 80 trillion watts and dwarfs the infamous Loki Patera. Even by the standards of Io, the most volcanic celestial body in the solar system, recent events observed on the Jovian moon are extreme.
Massive Volcanic Hot Spot Discovered on Io
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has detected an enormous volcanic hot spot in the southern hemisphere of Jupiter’s moon Io. This fiery region is larger than Earth’s Lake Superior and erupts with six times the total energy output of all the world’s power plants combined. The discovery was made using Juno’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), an instrument provided by the Italian Space Agency.
“Juno had two really close flybys of Io during Juno’s extended mission,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “And while each flyby provided data on the tormented moon that exceeded our expectations, the data from this latest — and more distant — flyby really blew our minds. This is the most powerful volcanic event ever recorded on the most volcanic world in our solar system — so that’s really saying something.”
Images of Io captured in 2024 by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno show significant and visible surface changes (indicated by the arrows) near the Jovian moon’s south pole. These changes occurred between the 66th and 68th perijove, or the point during Juno’s orbit when it is closest to Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Jason Perry
Io’s extreme volcanic activity is driven by the immense gravitational forces of Jupiter. Roughly the size of Earth’s Moon, Io follows an elliptical orbit around the gas giant, completing a full circuit every 42.5 hours. As its distance from Jupiter fluctuates, the planet’s intense gravity continuously stretches and compresses the moon. This constant squeezing generates tremendous internal heat, melting parts of Io’s interior and fueling the eruption of lava plumes and volcanic ash from more than 400 volcanoes across its surface.
Juno’s Infrared Eye on Io
Designed to capture the infrared light (which isn’t visible to the human eye) emerging from deep inside Jupiter, JIRAM probes the gas giant’s weather layer, peering 30 to 45 miles (50 to 70 kilometers) below its cloud tops. But since NASA extended Juno’s mission, the team has also used the instrument to study the moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
North Polar Region of Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io
The north polar region of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io was captured by NASA’s Juno during the spacecraft’s 57th close pass of the gas giant on December 30, 2023. Data from recent flybys is helping scientists understand Io’s interior. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Gerald Eichstädt
During its extended mission, Juno’s trajectory passes by Io every other orbit, flying over the same part of the moon each time. Previously, the spacecraft made close flybys of Io in December 2023 (see image above) and February 2024 (see image below), getting within about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of its surface. The latest flyby took place on Dec. 27, 2024, bringing the spacecraft within about 46,200 miles (74,400 kilometers) of the moon, with the infrared instrument trained on Io’s southern hemisphere.
Juno Captures Two Active Volcanic Plumes on Jupiter’s Moon Io
The JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured two volcanic plumes rising above the horizon of Jupiter’s moon Io. The image was taken on February 3, 2024, from a distance of about 2,400 miles (3,800 kilometers). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Image processing by Andrea Luck (CC BY)
Io Brings the Heat with Record-Breaking Eruption
“JIRAM detected an event of extreme infrared radiance — a massive hot spot — in Io’s southern hemisphere so strong that it saturated our detector,” said Alessandro Mura, a Juno co-investigator from the National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome. “However, we have evidence what we detected is actually a few closely spaced hot spots that emitted at the same time, suggestive of a subsurface vast magma chamber system. The data supports that this is the most intense volcanic eruption ever recorded on Io.”
The JIRAM science team estimates the as-yet-unnamed feature spans 40,000 square miles (100,000 square kilometers). The previous record holder was Io’s Loki Patera, a lava lake of about 7,700 square miles (20,000 square kilometers). The total power value of the new hot spot’s radiance measured well above 80 trillion watts.
This animation is an artist’s concept of Loki Patera, a lava lake on Jupiter’s moon Io, made using data from the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft. With multiple islands in its interior, Loki is a depression filled with magma and rimmed with molten lava. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Capturing the Fiery Event
The feature was also captured by the mission’s JunoCam visible light camera. The team compared JunoCam images from the two previous Io flybys with those the instrument collected on Dec. 27. And while these most recent images are of lower resolution since Juno was farther away, the relative changes in surface coloring around the newly discovered hot spot were clear. Such changes in Io’s surface are known in the planetary science community to be associated with hot spots and volcanic activity.
An eruption of this magnitude is likely to leave long-lived signatures. Other large eruptions on Io have created varied features, such as pyroclastic deposits (composed rock fragments spewed out by a volcano), small lava flows that may be fed by fissures, and volcanic-plume deposits rich in sulfur and sulfur dioxide.
Clues to Volcanism Across the Universe
Juno will use an upcoming, more distant flyby of Io on March 3 to look at the hot spot again and search for changes in the landscape. Earth-based observations of this region of the moon may also be possible.
“While it is always great to witness events that rewrite the record books, this new hot spot can potentially do much more,” said Bolton. “The intriguing feature could improve our understanding of volcanism not only on Io but on other worlds as well.”
More About Juno
Juno is a NASA spacecraft designed to study Jupiter and uncover the secrets of its atmosphere, magnetic field, and deep interior. Launched in 2011 as part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, Juno has been orbiting the gas giant since 2016, delivering groundbreaking discoveries about the planet and its moons. Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, the mission is led by principal investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
Built and operated by Lockheed Martin Space, Juno carries a suite of advanced scientific instruments contributed by institutions across the U.S. and abroad. Among them is the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), which has been crucial in studying Jupiter’s atmosphere and volcanic activity on its moon Io. The mission is overseen by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Through its extended mission, Juno continues to provide unprecedented insights into Jupiter’s dynamic system, including its powerful storms, auroras, and the intense volcanic activity of its moons.
Io, Io, It’s off to work I go..................
We should build a thermal power plant there and send the energy here.
What a pockmarked moon. Clearasil should help with that.
Which, like the sun is dated’- via radioactive dating - as 4.5 billion years old. Which would basically infer a perpetual source of volcanic energy yet presumably not by fusion
Beat the crap out of wind and solar. Now to string some cables.
“80 Trillion Watt Volcanic Monster”
I am impressed that IO’s geothermal system has gone all-electric. It is way ahead of us!
We must tax Americans to stop “Lunar Warming” on Io.
Libs are saying “See!!! It can be done.”
Just run a few extension cords from there to here and we’re all set.
Ghidora, his home.
Call Gojira
Man’s burning of fossil fuels has even caused global warming on Io.
I’d like to invest in the cable/wire manufacturing company that gets the connection contract...
Io is indeed a fascinating place….
This is interesting because we have in the Solar System moons with very long term self-heating, a moon with a thick atmosphere, several with liquid water (infused with ammonia, but, still...), complex organic compounds, a planet with our type of life...
Most suns we can appropriately study seem to have smaller bodies around them, and the estimate is that there are around 2x10^23 stars in the universe. A conservative estimate would then be 1x10^24 large moons and planets.
It is available from Dept. BZZZT!, Blackhand, SD.
(Stolen from old Mad Magazine cartoon of a “voltage tester” that consisted of a cable with 120v AC male plugs on both ends.) :-)
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