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The Juno probe observed the most powerful volcanic eruption ever seen on the moon of Jupiter

Credits: Nasa’s Godard Space Flight Center

During the close over from the luna of Jupiter, the Juno probe of NASA on December 27, 2024 resumed theVulcanic Extra-Terrestrial Volcanic elapsed that it has never been observed. It is a huge complex of volcanic eruptions covering one Large surface as northern Italy and that releases a quantity of energy even to that of All the electrical power plants of the world put together. There is also a little Italy in this record, given that the tool Jiram (Jovian infrared auroral maper) used by the Juno probe to discover the volcanic hotspot, was provided byItalian space agency. The volcanic system just uncovered discovered beats the previous record belonging to the Loki Patera system, a lava lake of 20,000 square km of surface. Juno will carry out a New close overflow on March 3rd To collect new data on the area, which will also be assisted by high resolution observations using terrestrial telescopes.

What the Juno probe discovered

Juno It is a spatial mission of NASA whose main purpose is to study theorigin el ‘Evolution of Jupiter. After revealing many details on the moons Ganimede and Europe, the Juno probe He has now directed his attention to the more volcanic moon of the entire sun system, the moon I. Juno has carried out well in the last year Three close -ups of the surface of I, passing up to 1500 km from the surface. Duringlast time occurred the December 27, 2024 to one distance of 74,400 km From the surface, the NASA team pointed all the tools available to the probe towards the area ofsouthern hemisphere of the moon.

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The image taken from the infrared detector Jiram shows the volcanic hotspot in the southern hemisphere of Io. Credits: NASA/JPL – CALTECH/SWRI/ASI/INF/JIRAM

Thanks to Jiram infrared instrument (Jovian infrared auroral maper) of Italian construction, scientists noticed one thermal emission come from the moon so intense as to saturate the detectora bit like when a photo is completely white if you try to point the mobile room to the sun. The huge emission is due to a Gigantic volcanic hotspotthat is, an area of ​​ascension currents from inside the moon through which He dates back magma on the surfacegiving rise to showy volcanic manifestations. This volcanic eruption is the more powerful that it has ever been recorded in the sun system and is due to a Complex of close hotspots which emit simultaneously, suggesting a vast system of underground magmatic chambers. Do you think it has one extension of about 100,000 square km (just under northern Italy) and emits a power of 80,000 billion wattsas much as all the electrical power plants of the Earth combined.

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The image shows the comparison of three optical image obtained from the Junocam, before and after the huge volcanic eruption, marked with a purple arrow in the photo. Credits: NASA/JPL – CALTECH/SWRI/MSSS Image Processing by Jason Perry.

Jiram is designed to capture infrared light, not visible to the human eye. However, the Juno probe is also equipped with the Junocama room that takes up Optical imagesthanks to which scientists were able to compare the Surface features of me before and after the volcanic eruption. Despite the low resolution of the image, the changes of the surface due to the eruption, especially as regards the color. The eruption left lasting signs like pyroclastic deposits (fragments of rock eroty by a volcano), small lava flows and deposits volcanic rich in sulfur and sulfur dioxide.

Because it’s a volcanic moon

The moon is the More volcanic celestial body of the entire sun system. The intense volcanic activity is due to proximity giant giant Jupiter. In fact, I perform an elliptical orbit around Jupiter once every 42.5 hours, experimenting one considerable variation of gravitational forces suffered.

The result is that the moon suffers from tide forces so intense as to literally deform. These deformation generates one immense energy for friction That merges the internal parts of the Moon, giving rise to an apparently infinite series of lava and ash plumes that pour into its atmosphere from the approx 400 volcanoes who butter the surface.