Researchers observed Mega volcanic eruption on Jupiter moon IO-Diepresse.com

At that location in our solar system, which has most of the volcanic activity, scientists have now also documented the largest volcanic eruption. At the end of December of the previous year, the extraterrestrial mega eruption near the south pole of the Jupiter moon IO, as experts said on Tuesday afternoon at the general assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU), announced.

The event was recorded, which also helps researchers to understand the complex volcanic overall picture on the sized of the giant planet, which is around 780 million kilometers away, with instruments of the « Jupiter Near -Polar Orbiter » – for short « juno ». The NASA-After her start in August 2011, the probe traveled around 2.8 billion kilometers for almost five years to swing the Jupiter orbit. In the meantime, the end of the 72nd Orbits around the gas giant with the stormy surface, NASA world-style physicist Scott Bolton from Southwest Research Institute in Texas (USA) said.

Jupiter monds are more in focus

For a few years now, scientists have also increasingly focused on the Jupiter Monde IO, Europe or Ganymede. Io is the third largest companion and has a diameter of 3,643 kilometers – and it is the most volcanic known region in space. Among other things, with an infrared camera on the probe, views of the volcanic activity can be taken to take a look, as Alessandro Mura from NASA and the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (Inaf) explained.

At the end of 2024, the observation by « Juno » occurred outbreak in the south of the moon: « It was unexpected. It was the greatest eruption that was ever observed in IO. It can probably keep up with the greatest outbreaks that were ever recorded on Earth, » said Mura.

Eruption corresponded to humanity consumption of humanity

The infrared images also indicate the escape energy. For several weeks, so much energy was thrown out of several openings in the area, which corresponds roughly to the total consumption of mankind over a year, the expert calculated. This made the event comparable to the devastating Tambora eruption in 1815 in Indonesia. Such large outbursts occur on earth around every 100 years, and something similar should be on about every 20 years, explained Mura.

The observations also contributed to the understanding of the magmast flows from the moon, which is surprisingly thin in places: the many « juno » measurements indicate a network of chambers with hot, liquid rock, which are partly connected via channels, according to NASA researcher Shannon Brown from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (USA). In places, « the hot stuff is just below the crust, » said the experts. This contradicts an originally popular theory that a kind of global magmaocean flows under the IO surface.

End of Juno mission in autumn

For Bolton it is astonishing that you could make such observations so far from the earth. The view with microwaves under the crust may also be an option for volcanic observation on earth, he speculated. However, the chances of such news from Jupiter and his moons will decrease in the near future: after 14 years on duty, the Jupiter probe is expected to fall into a checked manner in September.