Lava Lake on Moon of Jupiter Revealed in Remarkable Detail

For the first time ever, we have been able to capture detailed images of the heat rising from an active volcano on another body in the solar system. Using its twin 8.4-meter mirrors, the Large Binocular telescope observatory in Arizona managed to spy on a large lava lake on Jupiter’s moon Io, located some 500 million miles (800 million kilometers) away. The innermost moon of the gas giant, which is slightly larger than Earth’s own moon, is considered the most geologically active body in the entire solar system. At least 300 volcanic structures dot its surface. The largest of these features is a volcanic pit named after Loki, the Norse trickster god. The depression is filled with a sulfur-encrusted lake measuring around 125 miles (200 kilometers) across. The Voyager 1 spacecraft first discovered Io’s volcanism back on March 5, 1979, when it barnstormed the Jovian moon and snapped dramatic images of a giant, nearly 200-mile-tall plume (300 kilometers) rising into space, later revealed to be emanating from Loki.