An ocean of lava4/27/2018 The image above is a composite of Jupiter's closest moon, Io, made from 6 photos taken by Voyager 1 as it passed by the moon in March of 1979. The unique features of this landscape and its painted quality are a direct result of Io's volcanic activity which releases plumes and lava flows to color its surface. Io is actually the most geologically active object in the solar system which is due to the gravitational friction generated as Io is pulled back and forth between Jupiter and the outer moons of Europa as well as Ganymede. This special position in the solar system makes Io a very inhospitable place as, in addition to the constant volcanic activity, the radiation on the moon is 1000x stronger that what would be required to kill a human. With all of this information, I still thought to ask Google: "Is there life on Io?" I was expecting the answer to be a straightforward "NO, there has never been life on Io and there never will be" and also that I would read some theories about aliens having colonies on Io or other unfounded speculation about life on this particular moon. I was a bit surprised by both erronious expectations. In regards to the former, some scientists believe that Io could have held life a long time ago and that it could still persist today beneath the surface. Computer simulations of the formation of Jupiter's moons, suggest that Io formed with a large quantity of liquid water which was evaporated and sucked into Io's lava-tubes within 10 million years after its coalescence. So the chances for life on Io are poor, but there is still a possibility that microbes inhabit the turbulent moon. Recent findings also suggest that Io may be hiding a sub-surface ocean of molten rock, caused by the gravitational friction between it and Jupiter...this does not help the claim for life on the hellish moon but it does suggest that one of Jupiter's other moons, Europa, could have a warm and habitable ocean beneath its surface. While all of this is incredibly interesting, Io is probably one of the last places where we will send a autonomous surveying robot primarily because it is not a place where finding life is likely.Europa and Enceladus are the places in our solar system most likely to harbor life so, if we choose to explore for the purpose of learning as much as possible, then we will probably send a probe to one of these two moons to maximize our research-to-expense ratio. Perhaps we will never investigate Io and instead we will use our resources for our moon, Mars and Europa. Perhaps we will never become the multi-planet species that some of us hope for. It is certainly possible that we will make a critical error before we ever reach that point in our collective history. If we ever stopped fighting among each other, perhaps we could put all of that wasted energy into searching for the truths of our planet, our solar system and beyond. By the time we are able to reach out and touch something beyond our own moon, the truth might have evaporated into the solar winds and burned up in the cosmic radiation. Is the truth still out there? Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/... https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/... https://theplanets.org/... https://www.theguardian.com/... https://www.space.com/... https://www.smithsonianmag.com/... http://www.spacedaily.com/... http://mysteriousuniverse.org/... https://www.quora.com/... http://www.dailygalaxy.com/... https://www.forbes.com/... http://journalofcosmology.com/... https://www.seeker.com/... https://gizmodo.com/... https://www.centauri-dreams.org/...
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M.P.BronsteinA scientist who exists outside of the time-space continuum, looking for the truth, but unsure if it still exists or if it has become extinct. ArchivesCategories
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