Astronomers have witnessed a spectacular eruption on Io, the fiery moon of Jupiter. NASA's New Horizons probe snapped pictures (right) of a volcanic plume 350 kilometres high ? 40 times the height of Mount Everest ? when the probe passed by Jupiter in February and March on its way to Pluto.
Results from the fly-by were presented at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences on 9 October in Florida, and also appear as papers in the 12 October issue of Science.
Scientists were surprised to find that Jupiter's weather was abnormally quiescent. But Io ? kneaded by Jupiter's gravity into constant volcanic upheaval ? didn't disappoint. Scientists took 39 pictures of the Tvashtar volcano over 8 days, as an orange, sulphur-rich plume rocketed out at speeds up to 700 metres per second.
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Massive volcanic eruption seen on jovian moon. Nature 449, 769 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/449769d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/449769d
