Nasa’s Juno spacecraft has discovered an enormous lava lake in the middle of Jupiter’s moon called “lo”, Live Science reported.
The lake named, Loki Patera, is the largest volcanic depression on Io. If it was on Earth, it would be the 13th largest lake in the world.
In the middle of the lake, there is an island which features steep mountains.
Jupiter’s Io has more volcanoes than any other body in the solar system. It is bigger than the Earth.
The new findings were announced by Scott Bolton, the principal investigator of the Juno mission, at the European Geophysical Union’s General Assembly.
He said, “Lo is simply littered with volcanoes, and we caught a few of them in action.”
“There is amazing detail showing these crazy islands embedded in the middle of a potentially magma lake rimmed with hot lava. The specular reflection our instruments recorded of the lake suggests parts of Io’s surface are as smooth as glass, reminiscent of volcanically created obsidian glass on Earth,” he added.
The Io flyby’s have provided the closest look ever of the innermost Jupiter moon.
As noted on Nasa’s website, Io’s “constant volcanism and intense radiation make Io an unlikely destination for life.”
