NASA scientists have revealed the secrets of the most volcanic body in our solar system, according to new research. The discovery solves a 44-year-old mystery of why, and how, Jupiter’s violent moon, Io, became so volcanically active.
Io is only slightly larger than our moon, with a diameter of 2,237 miles (3,600 kilometers), and has an estimated 400 volcanoes, according to NASA. Plumes from these volcanoes’ eruptions can stretch for miles out into space, and can even be seen from Earth when viewed through large telescopes.
This dramatic volcanism was first identified in 1979 by scientist Linda Morabito, then at NASA’s Jet Propulsion-Laboratory, in an image taken by NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft.
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