The transformation of Io into the most volcanic star in the solar system

A new study points to why, and how, Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, became the most volcanic celestial body in the solar system.

Io, about the size of Earth’s Moon, is known as the most volcanically active world in our solar system. It is estimated to be home to some 400 volcanoes, which expel lava in seemingly continuous eruptions. This activity causes the surface of the star to renew very quickly, on the geological time scale.

Although Io was discovered by Galileo Galilei on January 8, 1610, volcanic activity on the satellite was not discovered until 1979, when scientist Linda Morabito of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory first identified a volcanic plume on Io. An image from NASA’s Voyager 1 space probe.

Since that discovery, people have been searching for the answer to the question of how Io’s volcanoes are fed magma. Is there a shallow sea of ​​magma beneath them that feeds them? Or is the source of that magma more local and individualized?

A team made up of, among others, Scott Bolton, from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, and Ryan Park, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), both institutions in the United States, has discovered that it is Io’s volcanoes are likely each fed by their own hot magma chamber, rather than from a magma ocean.

The north polar region of Io as seen by the Juno spacecraft on December 30, 2023. (Photo: NASA JPL / Caltech / SwRI / MSSS. Image processing: Gerald Eichstädt)

The discovery solves a 44-year-old mystery about the origin of the magma that feeds the volcanoes of that moon.

The observations of Io made about a year ago by NASA’s Juno space probe, in orbit around Jupiter since 2016, were decisive for the discovery.

The study is titled “Io’s tidal response precludes a shallow magma ocean.” And it has been published in the academic journal Nature. (Fountain: NCYT by Amazings)