NASA’s Juno spacecraft has detected an enormous volcanic hot spot on Jupiter’s moon Io, surpassing any previously recorded eruptions in the solar system. The feature, located in the southern hemisphere, radiates over 80 trillion watts of energy and is larger than Earth’s Lake Superior.
The discovery was made using Juno’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument, which measures the infrared light emitted by Io’s interior. According to Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator, “This is the most powerful volcanic event ever recorded on the most volcanic world in our solar system — so that’s really saying something.”
Io’s extreme volcanic activity is driven by Jupiter’s immense gravitational forces, which stretch and compress the moon’s interior, generating internal heat and fueling eruptions. The latest flyby of Io took place on December 27, bringing the spacecraft within 46,200 miles of the moon’s surface.
The feature spans approximately 40,000 square miles (100,000 square kilometers), dwarfing the previous record holder, Loki Patera. The team estimates that this massive hot spot could potentially leave long-lived signatures, similar to those created by large eruptions on Io in the past.
Future observations of the region are planned, including a more distant flyby of Io on March 3 and potential Earth-based observations. The discovery of this record-breaking eruption may improve our understanding of volcanism not only on Io but also across the universe.
Juno is a NASA spacecraft designed to study Jupiter and its moons, delivering groundbreaking discoveries about the planet and its atmosphere since 2016.
Source: https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-juno-uncovers-ios-80-trillion-watt-volcanic-monster-that-shatters-records