March 8, 1979, spacecraft Voyager-1 NASA finds active volcanoes on the moon Ayo Belonging to the planet Jupiter discovered.
Discovery of Io volcanoes
Before Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter, scientists believed that moons were dead worlds; Just like the earth’s moon, the moon.
This spacecraft discovered Io’s volcanoes by chance. Three days after Voyager 1’s closest flyby, mission controllers began taking images of Jupiter to determine its exact location. This process named optical navigation It is known that it caused various images of Jupiter’s moons to be prepared.
A NASA engineer noticed huge clouds above the surface of the moon while watching the images. After much investigation, scientists determined that these clouds probably appeared due to the eruption of a volcano.
Earlier Voyager images of Io were observed more closely after the event, and columns of other clouds were also found in them.
About future missions
With 400 active volcanoes, Io is the most geologically active mass in the solar system. The cause of its volcanoes is probably the effect of the gravity of Jupiter and its other moons.
Before Voyager-1 and 2, two spacecraft Pioneer 10 And Pioneer 11 They had visited Jupiter’s moons. After that too Galileo spacecraft He made a detailed study of Jupiter’s moons.
researcher Joyce Owned by the European Space Agency, it is scheduled for launch this year, and although it won’t fly by Io, it will use its instruments to gather data.
European Orbiter clipper It is also a NASA spacecraft that is going to be launched to Jupiter’s moons. This mission will also not fly close to Io, but will be able to monitor it from afar.
