Io: A Volcanic Puzzle – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBNov 9, 1995 · But Io is covered with hundreds of volcanic craters which continually spew forth fresh material, resurfacing the entire moon every century. Some of this material escapes from Io's atmosphere and gets caught up in Jupiter's powerful magnetic field, forming a gigantic doughnut-shaped collection of particles orbiting around Jupiter known as …
In Depth | Triton – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBTriton's thin atmosphere is composed mainly of nitrogen with small amounts of methane. This atmosphere most likely originates from Triton's volcanic activity, which is driven by seasonal heating by the Sun. Triton, Io and Venus are the only bodies in the solar system besides Earth that are known to be volcanically active at the present time.
10 Need-to-Know Things About Io - NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBThe moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system. Io even has lakes of molten silicate lava on its surface.
In Depth | Titan – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBSaturn's largest moon, Titan, is an icy world whose surface is completely obscured by a golden hazy atmosphere. Titan is the second largest moon in our solar system. Only Jupiter's moon Ganymede is larger, by just 2 percent. Titan is bigger than Earth's moon, and larger than even the planet Mercury.
In Depth | Europa – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBEuropa has only a tenuous atmosphere of oxygen, but in 2013, NASA announced that researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope found evidence that Europa might be actively venting water into space. This would mean the moon is …
Scientists Solve the Mystery of Methane in Titan's Atmosphere
WEBFeb 28, 2006 · Scientists have long known that Titan's atmosphere contains methane, ethane, acetylene and many other hydrocarbon compounds. But sunlight irreversibly destroys methane after tens of millions of years, so something has replenished methane in Titan's thick air during the moon's 4.5 billion-year history.
Cassini Finds an Atmosphere on Saturn's Moon Enceladus
WEBMar 15, 2005 · The Cassini spacecraft's two close flybys of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus have revealed that the moon has a significant atmosphere. Scientists, using Cassini's magnetometer instrument for their studies, say the source may be volcanism, geysers, or gases escaping from the surface or the interior.
In Depth | Moons – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBTitan, the second largest in the solar system, is the only moon with a thick atmosphere. In the realm of the ice giants, Uranus's inner moons appear to be about half water ice and half rock. Miranda is the most unusual; its chopped-up appearance shows the scars of impacts of large rocky bodies.
In Depth | Earth's Moon – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBThe Moon has a very thin and weak atmosphere, called an exosphere. It does not provide any protection from the Sun's radiation or impacts from meteoroids. Magnetosphere
First Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) Spectral Images of ...
WEBOct 19, 2000 · ring of gas ejected from Jupiter's moon Io. This donut of atoms is known as the Io torus. Our pictures are the first published imaging spectroscopy of the torus, although it was first discovered by Earth telescopes and later studied by spacecraft, including the Voyager and Galileo missions to Jupiter.