Volcanoes on Jupiter's Moon Io Are All Wrong. The hundreds of volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io aren't where they're supposed to be, scientists say. Io's major volcanic activity is concentrated 30 to 60 degrees farther east than models of its internal heat profile predict, a recent study reports, suggesting that the exotic, volcanic Jupiter moon Io is even more mysterious than researchers had previously thought. "The unexpected eastward offset of the volcano locations is a clue that something is missing in our understanding of Io," study lead author Christopher Hamilton, of the University of Maryland, said in a statement. "In a way, that's our most important result. Our understanding of tidal heat production and its relationship to surface volcanism is incomplete. " NEWS: Life Beyond Earth? Io is the most volcanic body in the solar system, boasting activity 25 times that of Earth. This intense activity is ultimately generated by gravitational tugs from Jupiter, with an assist from the nearby moons Europa and Ganymede.
More from Space.com: Jupiter moon Io's volcanic face could mask 'living' fossil. Jupiter's moon Io's volcano clusters are offset hundreds of… (NASA/JPL ) Like the offset eyes on a Picasso portrait, the volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io seem to be strangely shifted, according to a study by NASA and ESA scientists. Io’s clustered volcanoes seem to be lying 30 to 60 degrees eastward of where they were expected, according to a paper published this year in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The study could shed light on the internal dynamics of Jupiter’s volcano-pocked moon. Io’s internal heat comes from the kneading it gets from Jupiter and its fellow moons. Jupiter’s massive gravity pulls on the planet, stretching it one way. Meanwhile, tugs from fellow moons Europa and Ganymede stretch it from another direction. “It’s really a place that’s very much alive and very much changing,” said study lead Christopher Hamilton, an Earth and planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Jupiter's Moon Io Has 400 Volcanoes In The 'Wrong Place' Say Researchers. Volcanoes on Jupiter's Moon Io Are All Wrong, NASA Says. The hundreds of volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io aren't where they're supposed to be, scientists say. Io's major volcanic activity is concentrated 30 to 60 degrees farther east than models of its internal heat profile predict, a recent study reports, suggesting that the exotic, volcanic Jupiter moon Io is even more mysterious than researchers had previously thought. "The unexpected eastward offset of the volcano locations is a clue that something is missing in our understanding of Io," study lead author Christopher Hamilton, of the University of Maryland, said in a statement.
"In a way, that's our most important result. Our understanding of tidal heat production and its relationship to surface volcanism is incomplete. " Io is the most volcanic body in the solar system, boasting activity 25 times that of Earth. Some of Io's volcanoes blast plumes of sulfur and other material 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the moon, which is completely resurfaced every million years or so. View gallery. Scientists to Io: Your Volcanoes Are in the Wrong Place. Scientists to Io: Your Volcanoes Are in the Wrong Place Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System, with hundreds of volcanoes, some erupting lava fountains up to 250 miles high. However, concentrations of volcanic activity are significantly displaced from where they are expected to be based on models that predict how the moon's interior is heated, according to NASA and European Space Agency researchers. Io is caught in a tug-of-war between Jupiter's massive gravity and the smaller but precisely timed pulls from two neighboring moons that orbit further from Jupiter – Europa and Ganymede.
Io orbits faster than these other moons, completing two orbits every time Europa finishes one, and four orbits for each one Ganymede makes. This regular timing means that Io feels the strongest gravitational pull from its neighboring moons in the same orbital location, which distorts Io's orbit into an oval shape. This in turn causes Io to flex as it moves around Jupiter. Io. Multimedia: Video: Io's "Sounding Signal" This graphic and animation show the internal structure of Jupiter's moon Io as revealed by data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft.
The low-density crust about 30 to 50 km (20 to 30 miles) thick is shown in gray in the cross-section. The newly discovered subsurface molten or partially molten magma "ocean" -- also known as the asthenosphere -- is shown in red-brown beneath the crust. This global magma layer is believed to be more than 50 km (30 miles) thick, with the outer part making up at least 10 percent of the entire mantle by volume. The mantle has been colored gold in this graphic.
Io is bathed in magnetic field lines (shown in blue) that connect the north polar region of Jupiter to the planet's south polar region. Io's mantle is made of "ultramafic" rocks, a class of rocks rich in iron and magnesium silicates, which become capable of carrying substantial electrical current when melted.
Video Downloads Video Archives. Io's "Sounding Signal" New Horizons: Mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Io’s Volcanoes are in the Wrong Place. Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter This five-frame sequence of images from NASA’s New Horizons mission captures the giant plume from Io’s Tvashtar volcano in March, 2007. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute. Jupiter’s moon Io features at least 400 active volcanoes, making it the most volcanically active world in our Solar System.
However, the location of the volcanoes on Io just doesn’t match up with scientific models that predict how the moon’s interior is heated. “Rigorous statistical analysis of the distribution of volcanoes in the new global geologic map of Io,” said Christopher Hamilton of the University of Maryland, College Park and the Goddard Spaceflight Center. Researchers say there are questions about how this tidal heating affects the moon’s interior. This is a map of the predicted heat flow at the surface of Io from different tidal heating models. Source: JPL. Scientists to Jupiter's moon Io: Your volcanoes are in the wrong place.
Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System, with hundreds of volcanoes, some erupting lava fountains up to 250 miles high. However, concentrations of volcanic activity are significantly displaced from where they are expected to be based on models that predict how the moon's interior is heated, according to NASA and European Space Agency researchers. Io is caught in a tug-of-war between Jupiter's massive gravity and the smaller but precisely timed pulls from two neighboring moons that orbit further from Jupiter -- Europa and Ganymede. Io orbits faster than these other moons, completing two orbits every time Europa finishes one, and four orbits for each one Ganymede makes. This regular timing means that Io feels the strongest gravitational pull from its neighboring moons in the same orbital location, which distorts Io's orbit into an oval shape.
This in turn causes Io to flex as it moves around Jupiter.