What heats Io's interior?

Tidal flexing from Jupiter's gravity

How high can Io's plumes rise?

Thousands of times Earth's height

Io Quiz: Jupiter's Volcanic Moon and Its Sulfur Plumes

This Io quiz lands on the restless moon of Jupiter. Play 10 interactive questions on hundreds of active volcanoes, tidal heating from Jupiter and neighboring moons, an orbital resonance with Europa and Ganymede, sulfur plumes hundreds of kilometers high, the lava lake Loki Patera, a yellow surface, discovery by Galileo in 1610 and Voyager's 1979 surprise.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Planet
Which planet does Io orbit?
Record
What record does Io hold?
Heat
What heats Io's interior?
Resonance
Which moons keep Io's orbit stretched?
Plumes
How high can Io's plumes rise?
Sulfur
Which element colors much of Io's surface?
Loki
What is Loki Patera?
Found
Who discovered Io in 1610?
Surprise
When were Io's active volcanoes first seen?
Juno
Which spacecraft made close Io flybys in 2023 and 2024?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Which planet does Io orbit?
Answer: Jupiter
It is one of the Galilean moons.
Q2: What record does Io hold?
Answer: Most volcanically active world in the Solar System
It has hundreds of volcanoes.
Q3: What heats Io's interior?
Answer: Tidal flexing from Jupiter's gravity
It is squeezed again and again.
Q4: Which moons keep Io's orbit stretched?
Answer: Europa and Ganymede
Their orbits are linked.
Q5: How high can Io's plumes rise?
Answer: Hundreds of kilometers
Low gravity helps.
Q6: Which element colors much of Io's surface?
Answer: Sulfur
Yellow, orange and red appear.
Q7: What is Loki Patera?
Answer: A huge lava lake
It brightens regularly.
Q8: Who discovered Io in 1610?
Answer: Galileo
He saw four moons.
Q9: When were Io's active volcanoes first seen?
Answer: In 1979 by Voyager
Linda Morabito spotted a plume.
Q10: Which spacecraft made close Io flybys in 2023 and 2024?
Answer: Juno
It captured new images.

The Moon That Never Stops Erupting

Io, one of the four large moons Galileo discovered in 1610, is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System. It has hundreds of active volcanoes, and sulfur and its compounds color its surface yellow, orange and red.

Io's heat comes from tidal flexing. Jupiter's gravity squeezes Io as it moves along a slightly stretched orbit, kept that way by an orbital resonance with Europa and Ganymede. The constant flexing heats the interior and melts rock.

Volcanic plumes rise hundreds of kilometers high, helped by low gravity, and Loki Patera is a huge lava lake that brightens regularly. Io's volcanoes were first seen in 1979 when Linda Morabito spotted a plume in Voyager images. NASA's Juno made close Io flybys in 2023 and 2024.

What This Quiz Teaches

Space fans will enjoy these questions.

What Io is
Why it is volcanic
How high plumes rise
What colors its surface
Who discovered it

Did You Know?

Io feeds a ring of gas around Jupiter.
Its surface is always being repaved.
Io has almost no impact craters.
Its lava can be extremely hot.
Mountains on Io are taller than Everest.