Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanic place in the entire solar system. Now, new observations have revealed what the surface actually looks like and it's a veritable hellscape.
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00:00This is Jupiter's moon Io, the most volcanic place in the entire solar system.
00:09The reason for this is because the planetary satellite is caught in a gravitational tug-of-war
00:13match between the largest planet in our system and its other Jovian moons.
00:18This has led to Io's surface being deformed and pulled, causing immense amounts of friction
00:22inside the volcanic hotspot.
00:24Now new observations have revealed what the surface actually looks like, and it's a veritable
00:29hellscape.
00:30Researchers with the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy have written a new detailed
00:34study and revealed that the whole surface of Io is covered by lava lakes contained in
00:39caldera-like features.
00:41This is an image of one of those lakes, featuring a rocky island and a surrounding perimeter
00:45of molten lava.
00:47With the researchers estimating that around 3% of Io's entire surface is covered in lava
00:51lakes like this one, Io often has as many as 150 active eruptions occurring.
00:57That's pretty impressive, considering Io is only a quarter the diameter of Earth.