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Jump14of 100 · 629 M km from Earth

Io: about 400 volcanoes on one moon

Io, the moon of Jupiter with about 400 volcanoes, plumes over 300 km high and a 200 km lava lake. Facts with their sources, and videos.

Io in true colour, yellow and orange from sulphur and dotted with dark volcanic spots, photographed by the Galileo spacecraft
Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona · original

Curious facts

  1. About 400 volcanoes

    It is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System. JPL estimates it has about 400 volcanoes, blasting lava and plumes in almost continuous eruptions. 12

  2. Plumes over 300 km high

    Some eruptions throw sulphur more than 300 km up. In 2007 the New Horizons probe photographed the plume of the volcano Tvashtar: about 330 km. 34

  3. Jupiter kneads it

    Jupiter’s gravity stretches and squeezes it on every orbit, and its ground bulges up and down by as much as 100 metres. That constant kneading melts parts of its interior. Europa and Ganymede keep it going: for every orbit of Ganymede, Europa makes two and Io four, and those tugs keep Io’s orbit oval. 41

  4. A 200 km lava lake

    Between 2023 and 2024 the Juno spacecraft flew about 1,500 km above Io and saw Loki Patera, a 200 km lava lake with parts of the surface as smooth as glass. 5

Io in Orbit

In the game, Io is jump 14 of the route, 629 M km from Earth. Its logbook card says:

Logbook · Jump 14

Most volcanically active world in the Solar System

I want to try Orbit Already in the group: download

Two steps with the Google account you use on Play: join the group, then download the test. Google Play can take a while, sometimes more than an hour, before it lets you download it; if you see “Item not found”, wait and try again.

What Orbit is like

Sources

  1. NASA JPL, 2024. jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-juno-mission-uncovers-heart-of-jovian-moons-volcanic-rage
  2. NASA, Io. science.nasa.gov/jupiter/jupiter-moons/io
  3. NASA Photojournal, PIA09360. photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09360
  4. NASA, Io: Facts. science.nasa.gov/jupiter/jupiter-moons/io/facts
  5. NASA JPL, 2024. jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-juno-gives-aerial-views-of-mountain-lava-lake-on-io

Checked between 8 and 11 October 2026.

Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona · original