12/25/2023 0 Comments Discovery of io moonThough this atmospheric collapse and sulfur dioxide snow has been theorized before, this is the first time the phenomenon has been observed from Earth and was only possible by Gemini and TEXES's sensitivity to the faint infrared glow produced by Io's exosphere as it passes into Jupiter's shadow. In new observations by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii with the Texas Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph (TEXES) instrument, Io's exosphere has been shown to "collapse" for those 2 hour eclipses, causing the sulfur dioxide gas pumping from its volcanoes to freeze from the atmosphere and fall onto Io's surface as a frost. RELATED: How to Form Io's Mountains? Just Squeeze!Īs Io orbits Jupiter, the extreme Jovian tides warp the moon so much that huge quantities of energy are generated, causing molten rock from the moon's interior to spew onto the surface, driving perpetual volcanic activity.īut that's not the only way the gas giant impacts Io.Įvery Io day (1.7 Earth days) for 2 hours, Io passes into Jupiter's shadow, blocking the sun from heating Io's thin atmosphere (known as an "exosphere"). Close-up images were planned during Pioneer 10s encounter with Io, but those observations were lost because of the high-radiation environment.Jupiter's moon Io is not only interesting in that it's the most volcanic place in the solar system, it also has a seriously weird atmosphere that collapses and re-inflates as it passes into Jupiter's shadow every single day. The camera on board Pioneer 11 took the only good image of Io obtained by either spacecraft, showing its north polar region. The Pioneers also revealed the presence of a thin atmosphere at Io and intense radiation belts near the orbit of Io. Radio tracking provided an improved estimate of Io's mass, which, along with the best available information of Io's size and was composed primarily of silicate rock rather than water ice. The first spacecraft to pass by Io were the twin Pioneer 10 and 11 probes on 3 December 1973 and 2 December 1974. Further observations have been made by Cassini–Huygens in 2000 and New Horizons in 2007, as well as from Earth-based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope. These spacecraft also revealed the relationship between Io and Jupiter's magnetosphere and the existence of a belt of high-energy radiation centered on Io's orbit. The Galileo spacecraft performed several close flybys in the 1990s and early 2000s, obtaining data about Io's interior structure and surface composition. So the gravity, of course, pulls less on you. A person who weighs 200 pounds (90kg) on Earth would weigh about 36 pounds (16kg) on Io. If you stood on the surface of Io, you would weigh less than you do on Earth. Earth's moon works the same way, which is why we only see one side of the moon from earth. Since these numbers are the same, it means that the same side of Io always faces Jupiter. It also takes 42 hours for Io to complete one orbit around Jupiter. It takes 42 hours (1¾ Earth days) for Io to rotate on its axis. It only has a mass of about 1.4% of the mass of Earth. Io is one of these four, and the third largest. It was discovered in 1610 and was named after the mythological character Io, a priestess of Hera who became one of Zeus' partners.īy most counts, Jupiter has between 80 and 95 moons, but only four are large ones comparable to our Moon. It is the fourth-largest moon, has the highest density of all the moons, and has the least amount of water of any known astronomical object in the Solar System. Io ( Jupiter I) is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter.
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