EPSC2024: JunoCam Spots New Volcano on Active Io

A new volcano has been spotted on Jupiter’s moon Io, the most geologically active place in the Solar System. Analysis of the first close-up images of Io in over 25 years, captured by the JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno mission, reveal the emergence of a fresh volcano with multiple lava flows and volcanic deposits covering an area about 180 kilometres by 180 kilometres. The findings have been presented at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) in Berlin this week.

The new volcano is located just south of Io’s equator. Although Io is covered with active volcanoes, images taken during NASA’s Galileo mission in 1997 did not see a volcano is in this particular region – just a featureless surface.

“Our recent JunoCam images show many changes on Io, including this large, complicated volcanic feature that appears to have formed from nothing since 1997,” said Michael Ravine, Advanced Projects Manager at Malin Space Science Systems, Inc, which designed, developed and operates JunoCam for the NASA Juno Project.

The eastern side of the volcano is stained a diffuse red from sulphur that has been vented by the volcano into space and fallen back onto Io’s surface. On the western side, two dark streams of lava have erupted, each running for about a hundred kilometres. At the farthest point of the flows, where the lava has pooled, the heat has caused the frozen material on the surface to vaporise, generating two overlapping grey circular deposits.

The best JunoCam image of this feature, east of an existing volcano called Kanehekili, was taken on 3 February 2024 from a distance of 2,530 kilometres and at a scale of 1.7 kilometres per pixel. The images were captured the nightside of Io with the illumination coming only from Jupiter.

This encounter was one of three recent flybys of Io in 2023 and 2024, during which JunoCam acquired around 20 close-up visible colour images. JunoCam observed a total of nine plumes associated with active volcanic features on the moon, as well as other changes, such as new lava flows and other surface deposits.

The JunoCam data are posted on the mission’s website (missionjuno.swri.edu) soon after being received on Earth to enable the public to create images of Jupiter and its moons.

“JunoCam images are created by people from all walks of life, providing a way for anyone to join our science team and share in the excitement of space exploration,” said Scott Bolton, the Principal Investigator of NASA’s Juno mission at Southwest Research Institute.

Further Information

This work was funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the Juno Project. Junocam images are available at https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu and are archived with NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS).

EPSC2024-731 – Results from recent close-up imaging of Io by JunoCam (perijoves 57, 58 and 60)

Michael Ravine, Candice Hansen, Michael Caplinger, Paul Schenk, Leslie Lipkaman Vittling, Daniel Krysak, Jason Perry, David Williams,Jani Radebaugh, Madeline Pettine, James Keane, Alexander Hayes, Julie Rathbun, and Scott Bolton. https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2024-731

Images

The western hemisphere of Io is against a black sky. Io's pale yellow surface is blotched with red deposits and black volcanic features. The new volcanic feature, just below the equator, is ringed in red. Above, an insert shows the same area imaged by the Galileo mission in 1997. The same area, ringed in red, is featureless. — A comparison of JunoCam data from February 2024 with Galileo spacecraft imagery of the same area in November 1997 (greyscale insert) reveals a new volcanic feature on the surface of Jupiter’s moon, Io. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Europlanet.

Illustration indicating the size of the lava flows relative to Berlin, the host city for the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2024. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Europlanet/Google Maps.

JunoCam’s 3 February 2024 Io encounter sequence of images (the first two images show Io illuminated by Jupiter-shine). The new volcano discussed above was captured in the second image in the sequence. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS.

A side-by-side comparison of Galileo spacecraft imagery in November 1997 (left) with JunoCam data of the same area from February 2024 (right), reveals a new volcanic feature on the surface of Jupiter’s moon, Io. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS.

Contacts

Michael Ravine
Malin Space Science Systems Inc.
San Diego, USA
ravine@msss.com

Media Contacts

EPSC2024 Press Office
+44 7756 034243
epsc-press@europlanet-society.org

Further information

About the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC)

The Europlanet Science Congress (https://www.epsc2024.eu/), established in 2006 as the European Planetary Science Congress, is the largest planetary science meeting in Europe and regularly attracts around 1200 participants. It covers the entire range of planetary sciences with an extensive mix of talks, workshops and poster sessions, as well as providing a unique space for networking and exchanges of experiences.

Follow on X/Twitter via @europlanetmedia and using the hashtag #EPSC2024.

About Europlanet

Europlanet (www.europlanet-society.org) is a not-for-profit association that provides the planetary science community with access to research infrastructure and services. The Europlanet Association Sans But Lucratif (AISBL), established in 2023, builds on the heritage of a series of projects funded by the European Commission between 2005 and 2024 to support the planetary science community in Europe and around the world. Today, Europlanet is an independent membership organisation that provides mobility programmes, community services and training.

Europlanet received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement numbers 871149 (Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure) and 654208 (Europlanet 2020 RI), FP7 under grant agreement number 228319 (Europlanet RI) and FP6 under grant agreement number RICA-CT-2004-001637 (European Planetology Network).