: Astronomy: Io

solar system > natural satellite > Jupiter satellite > Galilean satellite > Io

Io is the third largest and fifth closest moon of Jupiter, and the innermost and densest Galilean satellite; also known Jupiter I. Although similar in diameter and density to our own Moon, Io is radically difference in appearance. It is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System, its yellow and orange sulfur-rich surface peppered with hundreds of active volcanic calderas. Huge eruptions, accompanied by plumes 300 kilometers high, have been observed by the Voyager and Galileo spacecraft. The energy for all this activity comes from tidal interactions between Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Jupiter. The three moons are locked in resonant orbits such that Io orbits twice for each orbit of Europa which in turn orbits twice for each orbit of Ganymede. Though Io, like our own Moon always faces the same side toward its planet, the effects of Europa and Ganymede cause it to wobble a bit. This wobbling stretches and bends Io by as much as 100 m (by comparison, the highest ocean tides on Earth only reach about 18 m) and generates heat in the same way that repeatedly flexing a rubber band causes it to warm up (see tidal heating). Some of these hot spots on Io may reach temperatures as high as 2,000 K, compared with an average surface temperature of about 130 K, and are the principal means by which Io loses its heat. (Encyclopedia of Science, by David Darling, https://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/I/Io.html)

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