My friend and I were having a disccusion on Jupiter, and then came the whole age thing, so I looked up on the internet, and found an intresting artilce from National Geographic.
"The planet Jupiter has a moon named Io. Io is the only other object in our solar system besides earth that is known to have active volcanoes on its surface. Io's volcanoes, however, are much bigger than ours.
One of Io’s volcanoes ejects material 240 miles above its surface. Looking from the surface of Io, our sun looks like a star point in our sky. The heat of our sun cannot possibly warm Io sufficiently to cause volcanoes. Io is much smaller than earth. The smaller an object is, the faster it loses heat. Volcanism on Io proves that Io is young. The remnant heat inside Io must come from the time of its initial creation with cooling occurring in the present. If Io were old it would already be stone cold to the center."
What can explain the vast diffrences? How old is Io exactly?
2007-06-11 03:41:13 · 5 answers · asked by uiop b 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Io is constantly being heating by the tidal tugs of Jupiter on the moon.
2007-06-11 03:46:02 · answer #1 · answered by Gene 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Io's internal heat comes from tidal effect.
Tidal effect is due to the gravity of Jupiter being different at various points of Io. (because various points of Io are at different distances from Jupiter). Even though Io is in "spin-lock": the same hemisphere facing Jupiter, the same way our Moon always shows us the same face), Io's orbit is just sufficiently elliptical for the slight difference to cause a slight "left to right" movement of Io -- compared to the line joining the centre of Io to the centre of Jupiter -- over each orbit.
Because Jupiter's gravity, even at Io's distance, is so strong (compared to Earth's effect on our Moon, for example), any tiny difference causes friction in the material that makes up Io: hence lots of heat is still generated.
Io is still old. It is just that the tidal effect has not allowed it to cool down (keeps heating it up).
This is nothing compared to Triton.
2007-06-11 10:50:17 · answer #2 · answered by Raymond 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Jupiter is a huge planet, it's gravity may have powerful tidal effects on Io, this could cause hearing of the moon's interior.
2007-06-11 10:48:52 · answer #3 · answered by johnandeileen2000 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Billions of years. That is young in space, but old to a human. Lo has twin volcanoes that erupt constantly. On and on.
2007-06-11 10:58:52 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
billions of years
2007-06-15 05:53:21 · answer #5 · answered by tennessee 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋