Description: IO Jupiter’s fifth moon, Io, is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Io has more than 400 active volcanoes with average height of 6km on its surface. Plumes of sulfur spew upward as high as 300 kilometers. The surface of Io is splotched with lava lakes and floodplains of liquid rock. Io's atmosphere is made primarily of sulfur. Temperatures on Io vary from extremely hot to extremely cold. Areas which feature volcanic activity can reach temperatures of over 2000C, away from these areas however will see temperatures plunge to -143C. Io is subjected to tremendous tidal forces. which cause Io's surface to bulge up and down (or in and out) by as much as 100 m. As Jupiter rotates, it takes its magnetic field around wi...
Description: "The beauty and terror of it seen from so close can empty any mind, thrust anyone into a trance. It's like seeing the face of God, some people say. The sight of it can strike thought clean out of your head. People seek it out precisely for that. .. each thunderheads of fire burning furiously, all together torching five million tons of hydrogen a second — at which rate the star will burn another four billion years.." (Kim Stanley Robinson)
