low graphics version | feedback | help
| Front Page World UK UK Politics Business |
| Sci/Tech |
| Health Education Sport Entertainment Talking Point In Depth Audio/Video |
Volcanic moon resembles Earth's past
Pele has an intense hot spot in the centre |
Jupiter's moon lo is covered with more than 100 volcanoes and dotted with lava lakes and rivers of molten rock, new pictures show.
The images could help scientists look back in time to Earth's younger, more volcanic days. The images were taken by the Galileo spacecraft on one of its closest approaches to the moon, from a height of 613 kilometres (380 miles).
 Io makes Dante's Inferno seem like another day in paradise  |
| Alfred McEwen, Nasa |
The landscape resembles what astronomers believe Earth may have looked like eons ago, said Alfred McEwen of the Galileo imaging team.
"The latest flyby has shown us gigantic lava flows and lava lakes and towering, collapsing mountains," he said. "Io makes Dante's Inferno seem like another day in paradise."
Huge lava lake
Scientists believe the Earth may have experienced massive volcanic eruptions like the ones on Io 15 million years ago. "Io is the next best thing to travelling back in time to Earth's earlier years," said Galileo scientist Torrence Johnson.
"It gives us an opportunity to watch, in action, phenomena long dead in the rest of the Solar System." And the images show that a volcano called Loki is the most powerful in that system.
Prometheus volcano: An area the size of four US states |
The hot lava stretches for six miles and is up to 45 metres (150 ft) wide. There are similar lava lakes in Hawaii, but Pele's lake is about 100 times larger.
Scientists hope to learn more when Galileo makes an even closer flyby on 25 November from an altitude of 300 kilometres (186 miles).
Io is about the size of the Earth's moon, with a gravity one-sixth that of Earth. It is one of the wonders of the Solar System. About the same size as our Moon, it is covered in vast orange and yellow deposits of sulphur that give the world a unique appearance.
 |
 E-mail this story to a friend |
|
Links to more Sci/Tech stories
|
Search BBC News Online |
|
|
 Advanced search options | |
| |
 | |
 | |
| |
 | BBC RADIO NEWS |
| |
| |
 | BBC ONE TV NEWS |
| |
| |
| WORLD NEWS SUMMARY |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 | PROGRAMMES GUIDE |
|
|
See also: |
|
|
|
 |
25 Oct 99 | Sci/Tech |
|
Galileo snaps Jupiter's moon |
| |
|
|
31 Aug 99 | Sci/Tech |
|
The changing face of Jupiter's moon |
| |
|
|
05 Aug 99 | Sci/Tech |
|
Io's ghostly light show |
| |
|
|
24 Apr 99 | Sci/Tech |
|
Astronomers moonstruck by Hubble pictures |
| |
|
|
07 Jul 98 | Sci/Tech |
|
Io is hot stuff |
| |
|
|
Internet links: |
|
|
|
|
|
Galileo |
| |
|
|
Nasa Io Flyby |
| |
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites |
|
Links to other Sci/Tech stories are at the foot of the page.
~RS~a~RS~international~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~03~RS~)