The Gemini Observatory captured images of the brightest volcanic eruptions in the Solar System, which occurred for two weeks on Jupiter's moon, Io.
The images were taken on August 29, 2013 by the Gemini Telescope and the Infrared Telescope Facility of NASA showing the magnitude and intensity of the volcanic eruptions. According to scientists, this eruption was the "grand finale" of a series of eruptions that occurred in the fourth largest moon of Jupiter. The volcanism on Io was due to the gravitational pull of the largest planet, which emitted too much heat on the moon's interior.
"We typically expect one huge outburst every one or two years, and they're usually not this bright," said Imke de Pater, professor and chair of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley and lead author of one of two papers describing the eruptions. "Here we had three extremely bright outbursts, which suggest that if we looked more frequently we might see many more of them on Io."
Katherine de Kleer, astronomer from UCB, described the images as daily representations and records of the three massive eruptions. The data were used by the researchers to monitor and observe the eruptions during its first two weeks. This period also provided the most critical perspective of this phenomenon.
De Kleer assessed the August eruption in close detail and concluded that it generated around 20 terawatts of energy and a high amount of lava. She further explained that the eruptions started from Io's long fissures, which produced very powerful eruptions. In comparison, eruptions on the moon were 10 times more powerful than the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland.
The first volcanic activity on Io was first discovered in 1979 by passing spacecraft. The astronomers believed that there might be around 150 active volcanoes out of 400. Other planets that have volcanoes are Earth, Venus, Saturn's moon Enceladus and Neptune's moon Triton.
Further details of the study were published in the Aug.5 issue of Icarus.
