Io, the 3rd biggest moon of Jupiter, is the most volcanically energetic body in our planetary system. When the Voyager 1 spacecraft took the very first close-ups of Io in 1979, it revealed that this moon, which is just a little bigger than Planet’s moon, was covered with energetic volcanoes– greater than 400!
Jupiter’s four biggest moons are called the Galilean moons, due to the fact that they were all uncovered by the well-known scientist Galileo Galilei. Two of them, Ganymede and also Europa, exert pressures on Io’s orbit that make it travel in an uneven ellipse. According to NASA, Io is additionally subjected to intense tidal pressures as a result of its extensively varying distances from the world. These forces create “tides” that are similar to those of Earth’s oceans, however way more extreme– as well as on strong ground, not water! Actually, unlike its fellow Galilean moons, Io appears to have no water.
While Io’s intense volcanic plumes can climb to almost 200 miles above the surface area, the moon also produces a substantial quantity of electrical power as it cuts through Jupiter’s magnetic field. This creates lightning in the earth’s upper ambience.
Galileo found Io as well as the various other 3 Galilean moons over two days in January 1610. He didn’t name them after himself; that came later on. He initially called them the “Medicean planets” after the rich and also powerful Medici family, that sustained his job. Galileo didn’t also call the private moons, yet just numbered them I, II, III, and also IV. They didn’t obtain their existing names– all taken from figures in Greek mythology– till the mid-1800s.
In Galileo’s time, people thought that the solar system revolved around Earth. His discovery marked the first time any individual had actually observed a moon orbiting another world besides Planet, and it assisted lead scientists in conclusion that planets in our planetary system orbit the sun.
