Violent volcanoes shaped Jupiter’s moon

The most volcanically active place in the Solar System, Jupiter’s moon Io, has been shaped by volcanoes for billions of years. Lava and ash spewing from hundreds of volcanoes continuously resurface Io, obscuring any physical evidence of its history. Scientists now used sulphur in the moon’s atmosphere as “a tracer for studying Io’s long-term evolution”, explains planetary scientist and study co-author Katherine de Kleer. Because lava on Io is thought to be similar to magma on early Earth, “Io’s volcanism might be giving us a window into the mechanisms of volcanism and Earth’s early history”, she adds.