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  • Australian Sky & Telescope

    A lingering Jovian mystery

    Aug 03, 2022 4 minutes
    by Thomas A. Dobbins

    Io is the innermost of Jupiter’s four Galilean satellites and the most geologically active body in the Solar System. A world of fire and brimstone, the 3,643-km-wide moon is dotted with hundreds of active volcanoes powered by tidal heating generated as the moon is rhythmically tugged by the gravitational pull of Jupiter and the other Galilean satellites. The high and ebb tides raise and lower Io’s crust by tens of metres, supplying the energy for eruptions that hurl plumes of vaporised sulfur and sulfur-dioxide gas to heights of hundreds of kilometres.

    Io’s brightness can increase by as much as 15% when it emerges

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