See the breathtaking new image of Jupiter’s volcanic moon from Earth

The Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham, Arizona has captured the highest-resolution image ever of Earth’s Io, the most volcanic world in the solar system.

The innermost of Jupiter’s four giant moons, which is about the same diameter as Earth’s moon, is covered in volcanoes, some of which emit sulfur plumes hundreds of miles into space.

It has been imaged by spacecraft, most notably by NASA’s Juno in recent months, but this is the best image ever taken from an instrument on Earth.

Frictional heat

Io is volcanic due to the gravity of Jupiter and three of its other largest moons – Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – which pulls the moon in different directions as it orbits. The build-up of frictional heat in its interior causes constant and widespread volcanic activity. Scientists believe there is an ocean of magma beneath the rocky surface.

Io, which orbits Jupiter every 42 hours, was imaged by the only binocular telescope of its kind. Equipped with two 27-foot mirrors mounted side by side, I was able to reveal features as much as 50 miles in diameter, a spatial resolution that until now had only been achievable with spacecraft orbiting the giant planet.

Spitting lava

Published this week in the Geophysical research lettersthe images captured three of Io’s most striking features: Pele volcano (below and right of the moon’s center), the white ring around Pillan Patera volcano (right of Pele), and Io’s largest volcano, Loki Patera ( left). ).

The image is so detailed that researchers were able to see a change in Io’s surface, where Pillan Patera is spewing lava onto Pele’s surroundings. “We interpret the changes as dark lava deposits and white sulfur dioxide deposits from an eruption at Pillan Patera, partially covering Pele’s red, sulphur-rich plume deposit,” said Ashley Davies, co-author of the paper and chief scientist at Het Jet NASA’s Propulsion Laboratory.

Such events have previously proven impossible to imagine from Earth. The breakthrough is SHARK-VIS, a new high-contrast optical imaging instrument mounted on the telescope that already features an advanced adaptive optics system to compensate for the blur caused by turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Last October, Juno passed 7,270 miles (11,700 kilometers) from Io on its 55th close flyby of the planet, making it the closest pass since NASA’s Galileo probe imaged the volcanic moon in October 2001.

During its next short pass in December, it reached just 1,500 kilometers from the moon’s surface. In April this year, more images (above) were taken from 10,250 miles (16,500 kilometers) above Io’s surface.

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