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Credit & Copyright: NASA, Voyager Project
Explanation:
In 1979, one of NASA's
Voyager
spacecraft made a spectacular and unexpected
discovery. Io,
the innermost Galilean moon of Jupiter, was covered
with volcanoes and some of them were erupting! In all, Voyager 1 observed
nine volcanic eruptions during its encounter with the moon.
When Voyager 2 flew past four months
later it was able to confirm that at least six of them were still erupting.
This Voyager image of Ra Patera, a large shield volcano, shows colorful
flows up to about 200 miles long emanating from the
dark central volcanic vent.
For more information about volcanism on Io, see Calvin J. Hamilton's Io page
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: volcano - Io
Publications with words: volcano - Io
See also: