The volcanic plumes of Io rise up as high as 200 km, showering the terrain with sulfur, sulfur dioxide particles, and rocky ash.Some of the material becomes part of a ring of charged particles around Jupiter called the Io plasma torus. Gases from the atmosphere escape to space at the rate of about a ton per second. Io has a very thin atmosphere that contains mostly sulfur dioxide (emitted from its volcanoes).The volcanoes of Io are constantly erupting, creating plumes that rise above the surface and lakes that cover vast areas of the landscape.The volcanism on Io is due to tidal heating, as the moon is stretched by Jupiter’s strong gravitational pull and by the lesser gravitational effects of the other satellites.They make this little moon the most actively volcanic world in the solar system. Io has more than 400 active volcanoes on its surface.If you want to know more or are interested in contributing to this effort, please contact Lorenz Roth (via lorenzr at kth.Jupiter’s Galilean moons size comparison ( Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) Facts about Io While this topic is very defined, the Io-Jupiter system is the prime example for various geophysical and plasma physical processes a correct understanding of Io’s role is crucial, far beyond Jupiter and the Solar System. In order to address the issue of these allegedly contradictory understandings of the variability of Io’s mass loss, we gathered an international team with leading experts in the areas of Io’s volcanism, atmosphere and the magnetospheric environment.
And some correlations indeed point to Io as the trigger. On the other hand, there are so far no alternative explanations for the observed magnetospheric changes from studies claiming “volcanic control”. Furthermore, observational monitoring of the atmospheric gas column density has not provided any evidence for sudden changes but only revealed seasonal atmospheric variability. Changes in volcanic activity are thus not expected to lead to strong changes in the atmospheric density or loss rate. The atmospheric loss is predominantly through collisions with the surrounding plasma and not through direct thermal escape. Io’s atmosphere has been found to be primarily sustained by sublimation of surface frost and to a lesser extent by direct outgassing at volcanoes. The assumption of direct “volcanic control” of the magnetosphere is, however, neither supported by the current understanding of the dynamics of Io’s atmosphere, nor by observations of the atmospheric abundance. Contradictory understandings and missing evidence The magnetospheric effects – presumably arising from Io’s volcanism – have been topic of an earlier ISSI team (ID 388). Within the magnetosphere and plasma community, it is therefore very often assumed that aperiodic changes or transient phenomena in Jupiter’s magnetosphere are triggered by sudden and strong changes in the mass loss from Io, supposedly related to volcanic outbursts. Io is also the volcanically most active body in the Solar System and the volcanism plays a key role for sustaining the moon’s atmosphere. The atmospheric loss from the moon Io is the main source of material for the vast magnetosphere of our largest Solar System planet Jupiter.
0 kommentar(er)
