High-Resolution Keck Adaptive Optics Imaging of Violent Volcanic Activity on Io

Io, the innermost Galilean satellite of Jupiter, is a fascinating world. Data taken by Voyager and Galileo instruments have established that it is by far the most volcanic body in the Solar System and suggest that the nature of this volcanism could radically differ from volcanism on Earth. We report on near-IR observations taken in February 2001 from the Earth-based 10-m W. M. Keck II telescope using its adaptive optics system. After application of an appropriate deconvolution technique (MISTRAL), the resolution, ∼100 km on Io's disk, compares well with the best Galileo/NIMS resolution for global imaging and allows us for the first time to investigate the very nature of individual eruptions. On 19 February, we detected two volcanoes, Amirani and Tvashtar, with temperatures differing from the Galileo observations. On 20 February, we noticed a slight brightening near the Surt volcano. Two days later it had turned into an extremely bright volcanic outburst. The hot spot temperatures (>1400 K) are consistent with a basaltic eruption and, being lower limits, do not exclude an ultramafic eruption. These outburst data have been fitted with a silicate-cooling model, which indicates that this is a highly vigorous eruption with a highly dynamic emplacement mechanism, akin to fire-fountaining. Its integrated thermal output was close to the total estimated output of Io, making this the largest ionian thermal outburst yet witnessed.