Acala Fluctus

Last updated

Acala Fluctus is a volcano with a diameter of 415.36 kilometers located on the moon Io, the most volcanic moon in the solar system orbiting Jupiter. [1] It is the site of sporadic fire fountaining activity with variable high temperatures. [2] [3]

History

Low-temperature spots were detected in 1979 by Voyager IRIS. In the late 1990s, the Galileo spacecraft detected a high-temperature hot spot over Acala Fluctus. Then Galileo also detected low-temperature hot spots on Acala Fluctus in the year 2000. Observations from Ground-based Infrared Telescopes showed that Acala Fluctus was active for ~18 months in the years 2019 and 2020. During that time it experienced two outburst with temperatures of ~1200 Kelvin. [2]

References

  1. "Planetary Names". planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
  2. 1 2 Rathbun, Julie A.; Pettine, Madeline; Milazzo, Moses; Tate, Christian (2024-05-01). "The History of Eruptions at Acala Fluctus, Io: Source of Multiple Outbursts". The Planetary Science Journal. 5 (5): 106. Bibcode:2024PSJ.....5..106R. doi: 10.3847/psj/ad38be . ISSN   2632-3338.
  3. Tate, Christian D.; Rathbun, Julie A.; Hayes, Alexander G.; Spencer, John R.; Pettine, Madeline (2023-08-15), Discovery of seven volcanic outbursts on Io from an IRTF observation campaign 2016 to 2022, arXiv: 2308.07864