APOD: Io in True Color (2010 Oct 03)

[APOD Robot]

Io in True Color

Explanation: The strangest moon in the Solar System is bright yellow. This picture, an attempt to show how Io would appear in the "true colors" perceptible to the average human eye, was taken in 1999 July by the Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Io's colors derive from sulfur and molten silicate rock. The unusual surface of Io is kept very young by its system of active volcanoes. The intense tidal gravity of Jupiter stretches Io and damps wobbles caused by Jupiter's other Galilean moons. The resulting friction greatly heats Io's interior, causing molten rock to explode through the surface. Io's volcanoes are so active that they are effectively turning the whole moon inside out. Some of Io's volcanic lava is so hot it glows in the dark.

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[mexhunter]

This is a stunning picture.
Greetings
César

[Eric]

Io in Japanese means sulfur!

[ianboswell52@hotmail.com]

Well, now we know. This is the moon which is made of cheese! Superb photo.

[yasgur]

"But I see your true colors
shining through"

Who would have thought I'd be quoting Cindy Lauper on the APOD forum. A very nice picture. Thank you.

[orin stepanek]

Well, now we know. This is the moon which is made of cheese! Superb photo.

http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... =9&t=16966

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Neat movie from today's links

[biddie67]

It seems strange that so much sulfur should collect in one place.

Does the diameter of Io change as it goes through cycles of volcanism and then possibly collapse as the internal core is "emptied out"?

[neufer]

Io in Japanese means sulfur!

I guess Ionians were meant to sulfur.

(Not to mention Asteriskians.)

[León]

Io in Japanese means sulfur!

Sulfur in Japan 硫黄
Read phonetically Iō

The most striking feature of the Solar system, with an aroma that calls for reflection.


Our models must prepare for the case of colonization

[DonAVP]

Does anyone have Celesia on there computer? Have you loaded this image of the moon to note the difference if any? I expect a difference, I think this has a much high res than even the one in the program. Will let you know.

Don

[DonAVP]

I am going to pass on the IO image. I have no easy way to unwrap the image so i can re rap it around the sphere. If anyone wished to do that let me know.

Don

[León]

Io's volcanic plume of 330 km height

The question to ask is who gets the atmosphere that can not retain

[Ann]

But did you know that on Io the eruptions are blue?

[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap960815.html]APOD: Galileo Views Io Eruption (1996 Aug 15)[/url]

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(And this image was APOD on August 15, 1996!)

Léon, I guess the gravity of Io makes the gases and particles in the plumes fall back to the surface of Io again. But apparently, when they land, they change color from blue to something else!

Ann

[León]

But did you know that on Io the eruptions are blue?

[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap960815.html]APOD: Galileo Views Io Eruption (1996 Aug 15)[/url]

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(And this image was APOD on August 15, 1996!)

Léon, I guess the gravity of Io makes the gases and particles in the plumes fall back to the surface of Io again. But apparently, when they land, they change color from blue to something else!

Ann

sulfur flame is blue

[bystander]

sulfur flame is blue

Pretty large flames, 60 miles above the surface.

[neufer]

sulfur flame is blue

Pretty large flames, 60 miles above the surface.

Diatomic S₂ gives the blue color to burning sulfur & the mineral lapis lazuli.

Elemental sulfur occurs in the form of eight-membered rings rather than as diatomic molecules. The two most important allotropes of sulfur are rhombic sulfur and monoclinic sulfur; these two forms differ in the way in which the rings are stacked. The rhombic form is the more stable of the two. Monoclinic sulfur appears as long needles and is formed when sulfur when sulfur solidifies at the melting point. In monoclinic sulfur the eight-membered rings are not as efficiently packed and the density is slightly lower than for monoclinic sulfur.

When sulfur is melted, several changes in appearance and viscosity occur. Sulfur melts to form a mobile liquid. Continued heating results in the formation of a viscous red liquid. The viscosity is attributed to a breakdown of the eight-membered rings, followed by linking into long chains. Above temperature of 190 C, the liquid becomes mobile again as the chains break apart. If this liquid is suddenly cooled, and amorphous substance known as plastic sulfur

Sulfur vapor contains both eight-membered rings and
diatomic sulfur; the blue color of the vapor is due to diatomic sulfur.
Like diatomic oxygen, diatomic sulfur is paramagnetic and has two unpaired electrons.

Io Venting Gas Venting Gasses

<<This photograph of Io shows what appears to be a volcanic caldera that is venting gasses (the bright blue patch at left center). In the photo is a network of volcanic calderas with dark floors linked by bright red materials. The northernmost caldera has a bright blue patch on the floor. Scientists believe the bright blue patch may be clouds of gas issuing from volcanic vents. The gas clouds may condense to form extremely fine particles that appear blue. Since Voyager 1's infrared spectrometer has discovered sulfur dioxide on Io, it is possible that sulfur dioxide is the main component of the clouds. Sulfur dioxide clouds would rapidly freeze and snow back to the surface. It is also possible that dark areas in the floors of the calderas are pools of molten sulfur, a very dark form of sulfur. The image was taken March 5, 1979, as Voyager 1 approached Io, and was taken from 129,600 kilometers (80,500 miles). (Courtesy NASA/JPL)>>

Spatial Color Variations in the Volcanic Plume at Loki, on Io
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 86, NO. A10, PP. 8621-8626, 1981
Stewart A. Collins, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

<<Multicolor Voyager 1 photographs of the Loki volcanic plume, on Io, have been analyzed to determine the nature and quantity of the scattering material within the plume. This work indicates that there are two particle populations. The first population consists of particles with radius of 0.001-0.01 µm, while the second population, which is concentrated near the source, comprises particles with radius greater than 1 µm;. The population of smaller particles includes most of the particulate mass in the plume. This work increases the previously estimated particulate mass (Johnson et al., 1979) and suggests that the SO₂ gas spectroscopically identified by Pearl et al. (1979) may represent transient flow from the volcano instead of an atmosphere in stable equilibrium with the local surface.>>

[Chris Peterson]

But did you know that on Io the eruptions are blue? :D

Indeed they are, since that is the color of sulfur vapor.

However, note that most images of Io released in the past had their color saturation boosted to highlight data. That makes the eruptions appear bluer than they really are. The whole point of the image released in this APOD was to reconstruct the imaging data against a human vision model in order to approximate how this moon wood appear to the unaided eye.

[Beyond]

Sufferin' succotash, how many sorts of sulfer are there?

[DCStone]

Diatomic S₂ gives the blue color to burning sulfur & the mineral lapis lazuli.

S₂ emission is blue, but the blue colour of lapis lazuli is not due to S₂! The gold flecks you can see in some samples are pyrites (Fool's gold) i.e. from sulphide, S^2-. The blue is lazurite, an aluminosilicate. Even if you did have S₂ in lapis lazuli, it'd only contribute blue to the colour if you set fire to it, and then only briefly!

[neufer]

Click to view full size image 1 or image 2

"When a red rose is inserted into a beaker of sulfur dioxide,
eventually the rose becomes pink in color. The bleaching results
from sulfur dioxide reducing a pigment in the rose petals."

[Ann]

Ah Io, Io, Io!!

(Do you Asteriskians realize that you don't offer all the hues I need to do justice to the color of Io?)

But let me give this non-blue rose to Art, for explaining the blueness of certain forms of sulfur to me!

Click to view full size image

by NGC 663, that is this open cluster:



that is, Ann

[mpharo]

Io in True Color (2010 Oct 03)

Io is the fourth largest moon in the entire solar system. It is not surprising that it's surface is covered in sulfur, for it has hundreds of active volcanoes on it's surface. The yellow surface it has gives it kind of a golden look. Although, if you look closely, you can see little dark specks on it's surface. Most likely, those "specks" are the volcanoes.


Michael Pharo