Jupiter's moon has beautiful ridges and dunes: scientists have explained where they come from

The new work was based on the study of the physical processes that movesmall particles around the planet.

The authors also analyzed mission images from NASA's Galileo spacecraft.The researchers believe that their work will expand scientific understanding of the geological features of such planet-like objects.

Scientists have long wondered why the mostJupiter's closest moon, Io, has winding ridges and beautiful dunes. Today, scientists call dunes hills or ridges of sand that have formed due to the wind. Previously, researchers who described the surface of Io said that it has dune-like formations. But they concluded that these ridges could not be dunes, since the wind force on Io is very weak due to the low density of the atmosphere.

The Galileo mission, which lasted from 1989 to 2003, captured a lot of data that researchers are studyingOne of the important findings of the mission is that Io has a high degree of volcanic activity and volcanoes from time to time.time is formed on the surface of the satellite.

Io's surface is a mixture of black frozenlava and sand flows. Scientists have created mathematical equations to model the forces acting on particles from the satellite's surface. As it turned out, when molten lava comes out closer to the surface, it can come into contact with frozen sulfur dioxide and instantly evaporate it. The pressure of the resulting gases is sufficient to quickly move small solid particles and gradually fold them into dunes.

These conclusions are also confirmed by data from the Galileo probe: the distances between the dune crests on Io, as well as their heights, coincided with the predictions of the model.

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