W. M. Keck Observatory: Extreme Volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon Io

These are images of Io obtained at different infrared wavelengths (in microns, μm, or millionths of a meter) with the W. M. Keck Observatory's 10-meter Keck II telescope on Aug. 15, 2013 (a-c) and the Gemini North telescope on Aug. 29, 2013 (d). 

The bar on the right of each image indicates the intensity of the infrared emission. 

Note that emissions from the large volcanic outbursts on Aug. 15 at Rarog and Heno Paterae have substantially faded by Aug. 29. 

A second bright spot is visible to the north of the Rarog and Heno eruptions in c and to the west of the outburst in d. 

This hot spot was identified as Loki Patera, a lava lake that appeared to be particularly active at the same time. 

Credit: Imke de Pater and Katherine de Kleer, UC Berkeley.

Three massive volcanic eruptions occurred on Jupiter's moon Io within a two-week period last August, leading astronomers to speculate that these presumed rare "outbursts," which can send material hundreds of miles above the surface, might be much more common than astronomers thought.

"We typically expect one huge outburst every one or two years, and they're usually not this bright," said Imke de Pater, professor and chair of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead author of one of two papers describing the eruptions.

"Here we had three extremely bright outbursts, which suggest that if we looked more frequently we might see many more of them on Io."

Io, the innermost of Jupiter's four large "Galilean" moons, is about 2,300 miles across, about the size of Earth's moon.

Aside from Earth, is the only known place in the solar system with volcanoes erupting extremely hot lava like that seen on Earth.

Because of Io's low gravity, large volcanic eruptions produce an umbrella of debris that rises high into space.

Images of Io were taken in the near-infrared with adaptive optics at the Gemini North telescope tracking the evolution of the eruption as it decreased in intensity over 12 days. 

Due to Io's rapid rotation, a different area of the surface is viewed on each night; the outburst is visible with diminishing brightness on Aug. 29 & 30 and Sept. 1, 3, & 10. 

Credit: Katherine de Kleer/UC Berkeley/Gemini Observatory/AURA

De Pater's long-time colleague and coauthor Ashley Davies, a volcanologist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., said that the recent eruptions match past events that spewed tens of cubic miles of lava over hundreds of square miles in a short period of time.

"These new events are in a relatively rare class of eruptions on Io because of their size and astonishingly high thermal emission," he said.

"The amount of energy being emitted by these eruptions implies lava fountains gushing out of fissures at a very large volume per second, forming lava flows that quickly spread over the surface of Io."

All three events, including the largest, most powerful eruption of the trio on 29 Aug. 2013, were likely characterised by "curtains of fire", as lava blasted out of fissures perhaps several miles long.

The papers, one with lead author Katherine de Kleer, a UC Berkeley graduate student, and coauthored by UC Berkeley research astronomer Máté Ádámkovics, and the other coauthored by Ádámkovics and David R. Ciardi of Caltech's NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, have been accepted for publication in the journal Icarus.

More Information: Near-infrared monitoring of Io and detection of a violent outburst on 29 August 2013 - Authors: Katherine de Kleera, Imke de Patera, Ashley Gerard Daviesd, Máté Ádámkovicsa: DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2014.06.006

Major volcanic eruption seen on Jupiter's moon Io

Voyager 1 acquired this image of Io on March 4, 1979. An enormous volcanic explosion can be seen silhouetted against dark space over Io’s bright limb. 

Credit: NASA/JPL

Recent observations of Jupiter's moon Io has revealed a massive volcanic eruption taking place 628,300,000 km (390,400,000 miles) from Earth. Io, the innermost of the four largest moons around Jupiter, is the most volcanically active object in the Solar System with about 240 active regions.

But this new one definitely caught the eye of Dr. Imke de Pater, Professor of Astronomy and of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of California in Berkeley.

She was using the Keck II telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii on August 15, 2013 when it immediately became apparent something big was happening at Io.

"When you are right at the telescope and see the data, this is something you can see immediately, especially with a big eruption like that," de Pater told reporters.

de Pater said this eruption is one of the top 10 most powerful eruptions that have been seen on this moon.

"It is a very energetic eruption that covers over a 30 square kilometer area," she said.

"For Earth, that is big, and for Io it is very big too. It really is one of the biggest eruptions we have seen."

She added the new volcano appears to have a large energy output. "We saw a big eruption in 2001, which was in the Surt region, which is well known as the biggest one anyone has ever seen," she said.

"For this one, the total energy is less but per square meter, it is bigger than the one in 2001, so it is very powerful."

While Io's eruptions can't be seen directly from Earth,infrared cameras on the Keck telescope (looking between 1 and 5 microns) have been able to ascertain there are likely fountains of lava gushing from fissures in the Rarog Patera region of Io, aptly named for a Czech fire deity.

While many regions of Io are volcanically active, de Pater said she's not been able to find any other previous activity that has been reported in the Rarog Patera area, which the team finds very interesting.

Ashley Davies of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and a member of the observing team told reporters that Rarog Patera was identified as a small, relatively innocuous hot spot previously in Galileo PPR data and possibly from Earth, but at a level way, way below what was seen on August 15, and reported in New Scientist.

de Pater and other astronomers will be taking more data soon with Keck and perhaps more telescopes to try and find out more about this massive eruption.

"We never know about eruptions – they can last hours, days months or years, so we have no idea how long it will stay active," she said, "but we are very excited about it."

No data or imagery has been released on the new eruption yet since the team is still making their observations and will be writing a paper on this topic.

Scientists think a gravitational tug-of-war with Jupiter is one cause of Io's intense vulcanism.

Windows Into Jupiter's moon Europa's Interior

This graphic of Jupiter's moon Europa maps a relationship between the amount of energy deposited onto the moon from charged-particle bombardment and the chemical contents of ice deposits on the surface in five areas of the moon (labeled A through E). 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Ariz./JHUAPL/Univ. of Colo.

The surface of Jupiter's moon Europa exposes material churned up from inside the moon and also material resulting from matter and energy coming from above.

If you want to learn about the deep saltwater ocean beneath this unusual world's icy shell -- as many people do, certainly those who are interested in possible extraterrestrial life -- you might target your investigation of the surface.

New analysis of observations made more than a decade ago by NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter helps identify the deposits that have emanated from 'below' the surface rather than those deposited 'on' the surface.

In particular the report examines Sulphuric Acid Hydrate production on Europa's surface.

J. Brad Dalton

"We have found the regions where charged electrons and ions striking the surface would have done the most, and the least, chemical processing of materials emplaced at the surface from the interior ocean," said J. Brad Dalton of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead author of the report published recently in the journal Planetary and Space Science.

"That tells us where to look for materials representing the most pristine ocean composition, which would be the best places to target with a lander or study with an orbiter."

Europa is about the size of Earth's moon and, like our moon, keeps the same side toward the planet it orbits.

Picture a car driving in circles around a mountain with its left-side windows always facing the mountain.

Europa's orbit around Jupiter is filled with charged, energetic particles tied to Jupiter's powerful magnetic field.

Jupiter's Moon Io

Besides electrons, these particles include ions of sulphur and oxygen originating from volcanic eruptions on Io, a neighbouring Jupiter moon.

The magnetic field carrying these energetic particles sweeps around Jupiter faster than Europa orbits Jupiter, in the same direction: about 10 hours per circuit for the magnetic field versus about 3.6 days for Europa's orbit.

So, instead of our mountain-circling car getting bugs on the front windshield, the bugs are plastered on the back of the car by a "wind" from behind going nearly nine times faster than the car.

Europa has a "leading hemisphere" in front and a "trailing hemisphere" in back.

NASA's Galileo Satellite

Earlier studies had found more sulphuric acid hydrate being produced towards the center of the trailing hemisphere than elsewhere on Europa's surface, interpreted as resulting from chemistry driven by sulphur ions bombarding the icy surface.

Surface deposits in these areas are most likely to preserve the original chemical compounds that erupted from the interior.

Dalton suggests that any future spacecraft missions to Europa should target these deposits for study from orbit, or even attempt to land there.

Dalton stated "While investigating the products of surface chemistry driven by charged particles is still interesting from a scientific standpoint, there is a strong push within the community to characterize the contents of the ocean and determine whether it could support life. These kinds of places just might be the windows that allow us to do that."

Jupiter's Moon Io: Volcanoes are in the wrong place

This five-frame sequence of images from NASA's New Horizons mission captures the giant plume from Io's Tvashtar volcano. 

Snapped by the probe's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) as the spacecraft flew past Jupiter in 2007, this first-ever movie of an Io plume clearly shows motion in the cloud of volcanic debris, which extends 330 km (205 miles) above the moon's surface. 

Only the upper part of the plume is visible from this vantage point. 

The plume's source is 130 km (80 miles) below the edge of Io's disk, on the far side of the moon. 

Io's hyperactive nature is emphasized by the fact that two other volcanic plumes are also visible off the edge of Io's disk: Masubi at the 7 o'clock position, and a very faint plume, possibly from the volcano Zal, at the 10 o'clock position. 

Jupiter illuminates the night side of Io, and the most prominent feature visible on the disk is the dark horseshoe shape of the volcano Loki, likely an enormous lava lake. 

Boosaule Mons, which at 18 km (11 miles) is the highest mountain on Io and one of the highest mountains in the solar system, pokes above the edge of the disk on the right side. 

The five images were obtained over an 8-minute span, with two minutes between frames, from 23:50 to 23:58 Universal Time on 1 March 2007. 

Io was 3.8 million km (2.4 million miles) from New Horizons. 

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System, with hundreds of volcanoes, some erupting lava fountains up to 250 miles high.

However, concentrations of volcanic activity are significantly displaced from where they are expected to be based on models that predict how the moon's interior is heated, according to NASA and European Space Agency researchers.

Io is caught in a tug-of-war between Jupiter's massive gravity and the smaller but precisely timed pulls from two neighboring moons that orbit further from Jupiter – Europa and Ganymede.

Io orbits faster than these other moons, completing two orbits every time Europa finishes one, and four orbits for each one Ganymede makes.

This regular timing means that Io feels the strongest gravitational pull from its neighboring moons in the same orbital location, which distorts Io's orbit into an oval shape.

This in turn causes Io to flex as it moves around Jupiter. For example, as Io gets closer to Jupiter, the giant planet's powerful gravity deforms the moon toward it and then, as Io moves farther away, the gravitational pull decreases and the moon relaxes.

The flexing from gravity causes tidal heating—in the same way that you can heat up a spot on a wire coat hanger by repeatedly bending it, the flexing creates friction in Io's interior, which generates the tremendous heat that powers the moon's extreme volcanism.

The question remains regarding exactly how this tidal heating affects the moon's interior. Some propose it heats up the deep interior, but the prevailing view is that most of the heating occurs within a relatively shallow layer under the crust, called the asthenosphere.

The asthenosphere is where rock behaves like putty, slowly deforming under heat and pressure.

Jupiter's Moon Io Video: Volcanic plume

NASA's New Horizon mission snapped imagery of volcanic debris emanating from Io's Tvashtar volcano in 2007. The plume reaches up to 205 miles above the surface of Io.

Credit: NASA /Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory /Southwest Research Institute

ESA JUICE Mission to Jupiter's Icy Moons

An artist's illustration of the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer spacecraft in the Jovian system. The mission will launch in 2022 and arrive at Jupiter in 2030 to study the planet and its largest moons.

CREDIT: ESA/AOES

An ambitious European mission that will launch a robotic probe to explore Jupiter's icy moons in 2022 has got its science gear.

The European Space Agency has picked 11 instruments for the planned JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, or JUICE, spacecraft.

The mission is expected to reach Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, in 2030 and spend at least three years studying the gas giant's major moons Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede.

The Jovian satellites are intriguing to scientists because they are thought to have vast oceans beneath their icy outer crust.

"Jupiter and its icy moons constitute a kind of mini-Solar System in their own right, offering European scientists and our international partners the chance to learn more about the formation of potentially habitable worlds around other stars," said Dmitrij Titov, JUICE study scientist for ESA, in a Feb. 21 statement.

The JUICE mission will observe Jupiter's atmosphere and magnetosphere, as well all four Galilean moons: Europa, Callisto, Ganymede and the volcanic Io.

The spacecraft is expected to make 12 flybys of crater-covered Callisto, as well as two close passes of Europa in an attempt to gather the first-ever measurements of the thickness of that moon's frozen crust, ESA officials said.



The spacecraft will eventually end up orbiting Ganymede, the largest moon in our solar system, to study its surface and internal structure. Ganymede is also the only known moon in the solar system with its own magnetic field, and JUICE will closely observe the moon's interactions with Jupiter's magnetosphere, ESA officials said.

The collection of approved instruments to help scientists complete these tasks includes cameras, spectrometers, a laser altimeter and an ice-penetrating radar, as well as a magnetometer, plasma and particle monitors, and radio science hardware, ESA officials said. Teams from 15 European countries and the United States and Japan will develop the tools.

"The suite of instruments addresses all of the mission's science goals, from in-situ measurements of Jupiter's vast magnetic field and plasma environment, to remote observations of the surfaces and interiors of the three icy moons," Luigi Colangeli, coordinator of ESA's solar system missions, said in a statement.

Jupiter's Big Moon Ganymede Albedo Mapped by Amateur Astronomer

An amateur astronomer has created the first-ever homemade brightness map of Jupiter's huge moon Ganymede in a magnificent display of how non-professional skywatchers can contribute to the field of observational astronomy.

Greek skywatcher Emmanuel Kardasis of the Hellenic Amateur Astronomy Association (HAAA) created the new Ganymede map using a common "hobby" telescope and off-the-shelf camera and computer equipment.

His map matches up well with images of Ganymede's surface taken by professionals, said officials with the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC), which is meeting this week in Madrid.

For example, Kardasis' reflected brightness (or albedo) map identifies such Ganymede features as Phrygia Sulcus, a system of grooves and ridges thousands of miles across, and a low-lying dark area called the Nicholson region.

To create the images, Kardasis attached a camera to his telescope and recorded a video of the ice-covered Ganymede, which is the largest moon in the solar system at 3,273 miles (5,268 kilometers) across.

He picked the video's sharpest frames, then enhanced them using photo-editing software, EPSC officials said.

"Ganymede has a tiny disk as seen from Earth so was a good test for my techniques," Kardisis said in a statement.

"If the same methods were applied to other worlds, perhaps [Jupiter's] volcanic moon Io, we could capture surface fluctuations."

"Professional observatories may create better images, but they cannot monitor our rapidly and ever-changing universe."

"The equipment amateurs need to generate products like his Ganymede map is relatively easy to find" Kardasis said.

"Creating useful images of planets requires a telescope with a diameter of at least eight inches. For tiny discs, such as the moons of Jupiter, bigger is definitely better," he said.

"My Ganymede images were made using an 11-inch telescope. You also need a good motor drive on your tripod, a sensitive camera, some freely available software and lots of patience!"

Jupiter's Moons: Mapping Io's volcanic heat

The most active volcanic body in the Solar System is not playing ball with scientists, as new mysteries emerge surrounding the internal heating of the moon Io.

A new study on Jupiter’s moon Io has yielded a map of hot spots which show the range of heat being emitted by the highly active volcanic body.

The volcanic eruptions on Io are immense, and dwarf the volcanic activity seen on Earth.

The volcanic activity of Io gives it its yellow surface colour which is frozen sulphur.

Io’s extravagant volcanism comes as a result of tidal interactions with the giant planet Jupiter and a complex orbital interplay between Europa, Ganymede and the parent planet.

Io’s slightly elliptical orbit around Jupiter means that the direction of the tidal bulge is constantly changing, effectively stirring up the molten material within the moon.

"The fascinating thing about the distribution of the heat flow is that it is not in keeping with the current preferred model of tidal heating of Io at relatively shallow depths," said Ashley Davies from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory "Instead, the main thermal emission occurs about 40 degrees eastward of its expected positions."

Hot spots on Jupiter's moon Io. Larger spots correspond with greater areas of thermal emission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Bear Fight Institute
 
The unusual pattern of the heat distribution suggests that there are complex heating processes deep within the Jovian moon.

"What we see indicates a mixture of both deep and shallow heating," said JPL’s Dennis Matson.

Another oddity that emerged from the study is that the volcanic activity only accounts for 60 per cent of the heat that emanates from Io.

"We are investigating the possibility that there are many smaller volcanoes that are hard, but not impossible, to detect," said Glenn Veeder of the Bear Fight Institute. "We are now puzzling over the observed pattern of heat flow."

Connecting the dots between Io’s internal heating and thermal emission will also help to further understand another Jovian moon, Europa, which could potentially harbour life in the oceans beneath its surface.

The study used data from NASA’s Voyager and Galileo missions, as well as using infrared telescopes on Earth. Galileo was a mission to Jupiter that launched in 1989 was the first to directly measure the gas giant’s atmosphere.

The Galileo probe was deliberately destroyed in Jupiter’s crushing atmosphere in 2003 to avoid a collision with the potentially life bearing moon Europa.