The Mount Graham Large Binocular Telescope, operated by UArizona, is the only one of its kind with two … [+]
The Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham, Arizona has taken the highest-resolution image ever of Earth on Io, the most volcanic world in the Solar System.
About the same diameter as Earth’s moon, the innermost of Jupiter’s four giant moons is covered in volcanoes, some spewing plumes of sulfur hundreds of miles into space.
It’s been taken by spacecraft — specifically NASA’s Juno in recent months — but it’s the best image ever taken on a ground-based instrument.
Jupiter’s moon Io imaged by SHARK-VIS on January 10, 2024. This is the highest resolution image of Io … [+]
Frictional heat
Io is volcanic because of the gravitational pull of Jupiter and three of its other largest moons—Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—which causes the moon to be pulled in different directions during its orbit. The accumulation of frictional heat in its interior causes constant and widespread volcanic activity. Scientists believe there is an ocean of magma beneath its rocky surface.
Io, which orbits Jupiter every 42 hours, was captured by the one-of-a-kind binocular telescope. Equipped with two 27-foot mirrors mounted side by side, ir was able to reveal features up to 50 miles in diameter, a spatial resolution previously only achievable with spacecraft orbiting the giant planet.
Jupiter’s moon Io imaged by SHARK-VIS on January 10, 2024. This is the highest resolution image of Io … [+]
Lava Ejection
Posted this week in Geophysical Research Lettersthe images captured three of Io’s most notable features—Pele volcano (below and right of the moon’s center), the white ring around Pilan Patera volcano (right of Pele), and Io’s largest volcano, Loki Patera (left).
The image is so detailed that researchers were able to spot a change in Io’s surface where Pilan Patera spews lava onto Pele’s surroundings. “We interpret the changes as dark lava deposits and white sulfur dioxide deposits originating from an eruption at Pilan Patera that partially cover the red, sulfur-rich deposits of the Pele jet,” said Ashley Davis, co-author of the paper and chief scientist at the Lab. for NASA jet engines.
Such events have proven impossible to imagine from Earth before. The breakthrough is SHARK-VIS, a new high-contrast optical imaging instrument mounted on the telescope, which now has a cutting-edge adaptive optics system to compensate for blurring caused by turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this view of Jupiter’s moon Io – … [+]
Last October, during its 55th close flyby, Juno passed within 7,270 miles (11,700 kilometers) of Io, making it the closest pass since NASA’s Galileo probe imaged the volcanic moon in October 2001 .
During its next close pass in December, it came just 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) from the moon’s surface. In April of this year, it took more pictures (above) from 10,250 miles (16,500 kilometers) above Io’s surface.
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