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Mapping Volcanic Heat on Io

By Guest PostJune 11, 2012Scienceashley davies, bear fight institute, david williams, dennis matson, earth, erupting volcanoes, europa, floored volcanic craters, galileo mission, glenn veeder, heat flow, hot spots, io, jani radebaugh, journal icarus, jovian moon, life beyond earth, logarithmic scale, map, NASA, paterae, pattern of heat, thermal emission, torrence johnson, volcanic thermal emission, volcanoes

A new study finds that the pattern of heat coming from volcanoes on Io’s surface disposes of the generally-accepted model of internal heating. The heat pouring out of Io’s hundreds of erupting volcanoes indicates a complex, multi-layer source. These results come from data collected by NASA spacecraft and ground-based telescopes and appear in the June issue of the journal Icarus.

A map of hot spots, classified by the amount of heat being emitted, shows the global distribution and wide range of volcanic activity on Io. Most of Io’s eruptions dwarf their contemporaries on Earth. (more…)

NASA’s Galileo Reveals Magma ‘Ocean’ Beneath Surface of Jupiter’s Moon

A new analysis of data from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft has revealed that beneath the surface of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io is an “ocean” of molten or partially molten magma.

The finding, from a study published May 13 in the journal Science, is the first direct confirmation of such a magma layer on Io and explains why the moon is the most volcanic object known in the solar system. The research was conducted by scientists from UCLA, UC Santa Cruz and the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. (more…)

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Mapping Volcanic Heat on Io

NASA’s Galileo Reveals Magma ‘Ocean’ Beneath Surface of Jupiter’s Moon