From time to time, disasters such as ** and volcanic eruptions occur on the earth, and this is actually the case on other planets. The U.S. InSight probe had previously detected Mars**, and about 700 million kilometers away from Earth, the Voyager 1 interstellar unmanned spacecraft photographed Io's volcano erupting more than 40 years ago. And now the information released by NASA shows that the American "Juno" probe flew over Io again, and also took rare pictures of the volcano, allowing us to see the alien "volcanic purgatory".
The Juno probe was launched on August 5, 2011, and after almost five years of flight, it was captured by Jupiter's strong gravity and successfully entered orbit around Jupiter on July 5, 2016. This is the first unmanned spacecraft to orbit Jupiter in 13 years since the Galileo probe completed its mission to Jupiter in 2003.
After entering Jupiter's orbit, the Juno probe began to explore Jupiter and its moons, and also took a large number of clear **. Through this data, scientists have a more comprehensive understanding of Jupiter. The probe was originally planned to end its mission in 2018, but it was in good shape, and NASA kept it in operation and is not expected to be decommissioned until September 2025.
When it is decommissioned, scientists will control it to change its orbit and then fall to Jupiter, where it burns violently in Jupiter's atmosphere and turns to ashes, preventing possible microbes from contaminating Jupiter's moons.
On December 20, 2023, the Juno probe flew by Io up close, adjusted the probe's camera, and found the best viewing angle and position.
Later, on February 3, 2024, he flew by Io at close range again, and took a close-up of the "volcanic purgatory" on Io's surface in deep space about 1,500 kilometers away. Through the clear images and data transmitted by the probe, scientists can understand basic information such as the frequency of volcanic eruptions on Io's surface.
As one of Jupiter's four Galilean moons, Europa is the fourth largest moon in the solar system, with a diameter of about 3,642 kilometers, a little larger than Earth's moon Moon. Like many other planets, Io's surface environment is hostile, with more than 400 active volcanoes, and there are frequent supervolcanic eruptions and super-volcanoes.
When the Juno probe flew close to Europa, it captured some details of the moon's surface**. From the details** that have been sent back, we can see that the surface of Io is covered with various large and small impact craters, and the small black spots in the image below are the remnants of the collapsed volcano, and the lava will eventually bury these places.
In fact, more than 40 years ago, the Voyager 1 probe photographed the volcano on the surface of Io, and it photographed the erupting volcano. The Voyager 1 probe was launched in 1977, and after almost two years of flight, on March 5, 1979, the Voyager 1 probe flew by the Jupiter system up close and took pictures of Jupiter and some of its moons.
NASA scientists were shocked after receiving the ** from the Voyager 1 probe. Although the Voyager 1 probe did not enter the orbit around Jupiter and only took a quick glimpse, the Voyager 1 probe discovered that Io's volcano was erupting.
Linda Monabedo, an engineer at NASA at the time, found a strange plume-like material ejecting from the surface of Io when she was processing the footage sent back by the Voyager 1 probe, and then she began a comprehensive study of the ** sent back by the Voyager 1 probe, and found that there were such plume-shaped ejections in 9 of the **s**.
Seeing this familiar and rare scene, scientists say that it is a volcanic eruption, the same as the earth's volcanic eruption. It's just that this is an eruption seen on an alien planet other than Earth, so scientists feel that this scene is very unreal.
Later, the Voyager 2 probe also flew by Jupiter at close range, and also photographed the surface of Io. However, due to the relatively long distance between the Voyager 2 probe and Jupiter, the footage is relatively blurry, but from the footage, scientists found that eight of the nine volcanic eruption sites are still active. After only a few months, the surface of the moon underwent some changes due to the eruption. This also shows that the geological activity on the surface of Io is still very active.
The reason why Io frequently erupts volcanoes may be because Jupiter's gravitational pull is very strong, and Io is relatively close to Jupiter, so it is tidally locked by Jupiter. In addition, the gravitational collapse of Io and the decay of radioactive materials produce a large amount of heat, which melts the rocks inside Io, and the geological activity is relatively active. If there is unknown extraterrestrial life on this planet, they may often have to deal with the devastating catastrophe of supervolcanic eruptions.