Tvashtar Paterae compose an active
volcanic region of
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...
's moon
Io located near its north pole. It is a series of
paterae, or
volcanic crater
A volcanic crater is an approximately circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity. It is typically a bowl-shaped feature containing one or more vents. During volcanic eruptions, molten magma and volcanic gases rise from an ...
s. It is named after
Tvashtar, the
Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
god of
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
s.
[ Tvashtar was discovered in IRTF images on November 26, 1999, several hours after a Galileo flyby. Images taken with the ESO 3.6m telescope and its adaptive optics in September 1999 revealed the presence of faint hot spot (labeled 990930D). The outburst was studied by the ]Galileo spacecraft
''Galileo'' was an American robotic space probe that studied the planet Jupiter and its moons, as well as the asteroids Gaspra and Ida. Named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, it consisted of an orbiter and an entry probe. It wa ...
over several years. During this time, a long, high curtain of lava was seen to erupt from one patera
In the material culture of classical antiquity, a ''patera'' () or ''phiale'' ( ) is a shallow ceramic or metal libation bowl. It often has a bulbous indentation ('' omphalos'', "belly button") in the center underside to facilitate holding it, ...
, a lake of superheated silica
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundant f ...
te lava erupted in the largest patera, and finally a plume of gas burst out, rising above Io and blanketing areas as far away as .New Horizons
''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...
probe as it went past Jupiter ''en route'' to Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...
. The probe observed an enormous high plume from the volcano, with an as-yet unexplained filamentary structure made clearly visible by the background light from the sun.Mission Photos: An Eruption on Io
(New Horizons) Retrieved on February 28, 2007.
See also
*
List of extraterrestrial volcanoes
*
Tvashtar
References
External links
*
"VOLCANIC ACTIVITY AT TVASHTAR CATENA, IO", ''Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV (2004)''
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Volcanoes of Io (moon)
Active volcanoes
Surface features of Io (moon)
New Horizons