![]() ![]() "This means that, whatever the compound is, it probably doesn't come to the surface in the lava, but instead could be ejected in the volcanic plumes," Carlson said. However, the higher spatial resolution observations taken during the flybys showed that the opposite is true: the band is weaker in the dark volcanic areas. Robert Carlson, principal investigator for the spectrometer team. If this was true, we would expect the band to be stronger in areas of the surface where lava deposits are new," said JPL's Dr. "It was possible that it could be a mineral containing iron, such as pyrite, present in silicate lavas. When it showed an unusual light pattern in a part of Io, scientists knew they had found a mysterious and unexpected substance. ![]() The infrared instrument can measure different substances by the light that they absorb or reflect. "Our calculations indicate that given sufficiently large quantities, some of the liquid could freeze to form a layer of sulfur dioxide ice inside the caldera," said Dr. Because Io's atmosphere is so thin that it is almost a vacuum, the liquid would normally boil off. The fact that this deposit is confined within the caldera walls indicates that it could have originally been a liquid, rising from lower layers. This means that Io could contain many smaller volcanoes with very hot lava.Ī small, inactive volcano in the Chaac region was found to have a bright white floor covered in sulfur dioxide. As the Galileo spacecraft moved close to Io during its flybys, it revealed more high-temperature areas than could be detected by distant observations. Billions of years ago on Earth, such hot volcanoes may have been common.īefore the three Io flybys by Galileo in late 1999 and early 2000, scientists knew Io had two volcanoes with very high temperatures. Rosaly Lopes-Gautier, the instrument's science coordinator for Io at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California. "One of the most interesting questions about Io is: do all Io's volcanoes erupt such hot lavas, or are most volcanoes similar to basaltic volcanoes on Earth that erupt lavas with lower temperatures, about 1,200 Celsius (2,192 F)?" said Dr. The volcano Pele, named for the mythological Polynesian fire goddess, showed much higher temperatures inside its volcano than any found now on Earth - about 1,500 Celsius (more than 2,700 Fahrenheit). The spectrometer detects heat from lava and shows the location of different materials on Io's surface. Galileo's near infrared mapping spectrometer instrument has found extremely high temperatures inside the volcanoes, which are more abundant than previously believed and contain surprising substances. The volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io are like exotic dishes: they're hot, spicy, and have unfamiliar ingredients, according to new data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft.
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