On March 8, 1979, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft discovered active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io.
Before Voyager 1 flew by Io, scientists believed the moon to be a dead world much like Earth's moon. The mission discovered the volcanoes somewhat by accident. Three days after Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Jupiter, mission controllers took pictures of Jupiter's moons to help determine the spacecraft's exact location. This process is known as optical navigation. While looking at the photos, a NASA engineer noticed a huge cloud protruding almost 200 miles above Io's surface. Scientists determined that this plume likely erupted from a volcano. Then the team went back to earlier Voyager images of Io and found seven more plumes.
Before Voyager 1 flew by Io, scientists believed the moon to be a dead world much like Earth's moon. The mission discovered the volcanoes somewhat by accident. Three days after Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Jupiter, mission controllers took pictures of Jupiter's moons to help determine the spacecraft's exact location. This process is known as optical navigation. While looking at the photos, a NASA engineer noticed a huge cloud protruding almost 200 miles above Io's surface. Scientists determined that this plume likely erupted from a volcano. Then the team went back to earlier Voyager images of Io and found seven more plumes.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03On March 8th, 1979, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft
00:07discovered active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io.
00:10Before Voyager 1 flew by Io, scientists believed the moon
00:13to be a dead world much like Earth's moon.
00:16The mission discovered the volcanoes somewhat by accident.
00:19Three days after Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Jupiter,
00:22mission controllers took pictures of Jupiter's moons
00:24to help determine the spacecraft's exact location.
00:27This process is known as optical navigation.
00:29While looking at the photos, a NASA engineer noticed a huge cloud
00:32protruding almost 200 miles above Io's surface.
00:35Scientists determined that this plume likely erupted from a volcano.
00:39Then the team went back to earlier Voyager images of Io
00:42and found seven more plumes.
00:44And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:47NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology