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Hubble Captures Volcanic Eruption Plume From Io

Plume of Gas and Dust Spouts From Volcanic Eruption on Io
The Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a picture of a 400-km-high (250-mile-high) plume of gas and dust from a volcanic eruption on Io, Jupiter's large innermost moon. Io was passing in front of Jupiter when this image was taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in July...

The Hubble telescope has snapped a picture of a 400-kilometer-high (250-mile-high) plume of gas and dust from a volcanic eruption on Io, Jupiter's large, innermost moon.

Io was passing in front of Jupiter when Hubble took this image. The plume appears as an orange patch just off the edge of Io [at eight o'clock], against the blue background of Jupiter's clouds. Io's volcanic eruptions blast material hundreds of kilometers into space in giant plumes of gas and dust. In this image, material must have been blown out of the volcano at more than 2,000 mph to form a plume of this size, which is the largest yet seen on Io.

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Last Updated
Mar 20, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Credits

John Spencer (Lowell Observatory) and NASA