Posted on 02/05/2025 9:31:43 AM PST by BenLurkin
A NASA spacecraft orbiting Jupiter has just witnessed some of the most extreme volcanic eruptions ever seen in the solar system, coming from a giant underground magma chamber on the "tormented" Jovian moon Io. The energy pouring from this record-breaking hot spot far exceeds the amount of power we are producing on Earth, researchers say.
Io is Jupiter's third-largest moon, spanning roughly 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) across, which makes it slightly bigger than Earth's moon. It orbits Jupiter at a distance of around 262,000 miles (422,000 km) — also similar to how far away the moon orbits Earth — but it travels much faster than its lunar counterpart, whipping around Jupiter every 42.5 hours. This is due to the gas giant's immense gravity, which has also turned Io into a fiery hellscape covered with up to 400 volcanoes and multiple lava lakes.
Io is frequently monitored by NASA's Juno spacecraft, which has been circling Jupiter in a highly elliptical, or stretched, orbit since 2016. Juno passes by Io once every few months and fixes its gaze on the volcanic satellite so scientists can learn more about the moon's fiery insides.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Jupiter, The God of the Sky and Thunder is unhappy.😉
Io is where Democrat politicians go when they die.
Io: The Palestinian State!
How much does USAID send there?
--A. E. Housman, Fragment of a Greek Tragedy
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