New Horizons Observes Io's Volcanic Activity

Details New Horizons Observes Io's Volcanic Activity New Horizons Observes Io's Volcanic Activity

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.1505s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #15.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.437

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

During its Jupiter flyby in late February and early March 2007, New Horizons obtained the first close-up observations of Io since the last Galileo data in 2001. Observations included comprehensive mapping of surface albedo changes, plume activity, and volcanic thermal emission, providing the most comprehensive globally-uniform snapshot of Io volcanism to date. Notable new sites of volcanic activity included a large ongoing pyroclastic eruption at Lerna Regio (55 S, 290 W) and a high-temperature eruption at 22 N, 235 W that has produced negligible surface changes at New Horizons resolution ( 15 km) and may therefore be very new. Most remarkable was a very bright hot spot and associated 350 km high volcanic plume from the Tvashtar volcano (62 N, 122 W), which provided the most comprehensive view yet of a large Io plume, including a plume movie which provided the first direct observations of motion in an Io plume. Projected speeds of up to 0.7 km s-1 were seen. The plume's morphology and dynamics support non-ballistic models of large Io plumes and also suggest that most visible plume particles condense within the plume rather than being ejected from the source. Comparison of visible and near-IR images of Io in Jupiter eclipse implies that a non-thermal process, likely auroral emission from volcanic gases within tens of kilometers of the surface, is producing visible-wavelength emission from individual volcanoes near Io's sub-Jupiter and anti-Jupiter points. Near-IR emission from the brightest volcanoes indicates minimum magma temperatures in the 1150 - 1335 K range, consistent with basaltic composition.

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