Violent volcanic eruption observed on Io, the most volcanic body in the solar system

Last fall, a major volcanic eruption occurred on Io, the closest Galilean satellite to Jupiter.

Jeff Morgenthalerworld in Planetary Science Institute (PSI), use the observatory I/O (IoIO), located near Benson, AZ (USA), to monitorVolcanic activity on Io Since 2017. Notes appear some activity Almost every year, howeverFallFall 2022 is the most important thing seen so far.

Chronograph to see Io gases

in between The four largest satellites of JupiterAnd the AyoAyo He is closest to the planet. Effect ExtensionExtension orange giant f Two more satellites from Galileewhich is Europe and GanymedeGanymedemade of The most volcanic body in the solar system. Actually, when Ganymede travels a orbitorbitAnd the Europe passes through two f Ayo four passes. this is echoechobetter known as Laplace, makes it possible to preserveabnormalityabnormality The Io orbital is just above zero (0.0041) and thus produces the main heat source to me its volcanic activity.

IoIO technology is used Coronagraphic to soften the light coming from JupiterJupiterwith a goalpicture Dim glow GasGas near the planet. Between July and September 2022, two of these gases became brighter: sodiumsodium and the matchsticksmatchsticks ionizer. This event lasted until December. Ionized sulfur, which forms a doughnut-like structure around Jupiter called the plasma torus of Io, was surprisingly less bright during this eruption than in the previous one. For Morgenthaler, It could tell us something about the composition of the volcanic activity that caused the eruption or it could tell us that the torus is more efficient at disposing of ThingThing When more material is injected into it “.

Useful data for Juno’s flyby of Io

These observations have profound implications for the mission. JunoJuno. probewhich revolves around Jupiter Since 2016flew over Europe on September 29, 2022, during the eruption, and And it is answered It passed about 1,500 kilometers from the surface of Io on December 30, 2023, just 57 years ago.^e Berezine (the probe’s passage as close as possible to Jupiter). Many of Juno’s instruments are sensitive to changes in the plasma environment around Jupiter and Io that can be directly attributed to the type of volcanic activity observed by IoIO. Morgenthaler explains that ” they metrics Juno Can you tell us if this is volcanic eruptionvolcanic eruption It has a different composition than its predecessors “.

Morgenthaler states that “ One of the exciting things about these notes is that they can be replicated by any institute or small business An aspiring amateur astronomer. Almost all of the parts used to build an IoIO are available at a high-end camera or telescope store Having one or more instances of IoIO running elsewhere would be very useful to avoid outages due to Weather reportWeather report And it can provide more temporal coverage of the Io Plasma Torus ring and the highly dynamic Sodium Nebula each night. ” It would be great to see another IoIO live stream before Juno reaches Jupiter this December. Morgenthaler concludes.

Along with the Sodium Jovian Nebula, it watches over IoIO Sodium tail of Mercuryfollower Bright comets and the Transiting planets outside the solar system.