Large Binocular Telescope Observatory | 2015 Apr 30
[img3="A raw LMIRcam image of Io showing the fringes on Loki Patera (bright spot)With the first detailed observations through imaging interferometry of a lava lake on a moon of Jupiter, the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory places itself as the forerunner of the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes.
and on fainter active volcanic areas. (Credit: LBTO)"]http://www.lbto.org/uploads/2/3/4/2/23422784/ra.jpg[/img3]
Io, the innermost of the four moons of Jupiter discovered by Galileo in January 1610, is only slightly bigger than our own Moon but is the most geologically active body in our solar system. Hundreds of volcanic areas dot its surface, which is mostly covered with sulfur and sulfur dioxide.
The largest of these volcanic features, named Loki after the Norse god often associated with fire and chaos, is a volcanic depression called patera in which the denser lava crust solidifying on top of a lava lake episodically sinks in the lake, yielding a rise in the thermal emission which has been regularly observed from Earth. Loki, only 200km in diameter and at least 600 million km from Earth, was, up to recently, too small to be looked at in detail from any ground based optical/infrared telescope.
With its two 8.4 m mirrors set on the same mount 6 m apart, the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), by combining the light through interferometry, provide images at the same level of detail a 22.8 m telescope would reach. Thanks to the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI), an international team of researchers was able to look at Loki Patera, revealing details as never before seen from Earth; their study is published today in the Astronomical Journal. ...
Volcano Loki Observed from Earth
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy | 2015 Apr 30
Spatially Resolved M-band Emission from Io's Loki Patera–Fizeau Imaging at the 22.8 m LBT - Albert Conrad et al
- Astronomical Journal 149(5) 175 (2015 May) DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/149/5/175