For many years, scientists believed that Jupiter’s moon lo was geologically dead. This means it didn’t have things such as earthquakes, newly forming mountains or volcanoes. However, it turns out the scientists were wrong about lo. In 1979, when NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft took close up pictures of lo, the pictures showed a massive plume erupting from lo’s surface into space. That’s when they realise that lo did not just have volcanoes, it had active volcanoes. And, lo was no longer considered geologically dead. When these pictures were taken it was the first time an erupting volcano was found anywhere other than Earth. So that leaves us wondering, do all the planets and their moons have active volcanoes? Let’s take a look
Mercury: The planet once had active volcanoes, but not anymore. Scientists believe violent volcanic eruptions that shaped Mercury’s surface, likely ended about 3.5 billion years ago.
Venus: Venus, on the other hand is covered with volcanoes. The hottest planet in our solar system has over 1,000 volcanoes, including some that might still be active, according to what scientists think.
Mars: Mars is home to Olympus Mons, the solar largest volcano in our system. It is also the mountain in our solar largest led our solar system Mars is filled with tall volcanic mountains, and while scientists haven’t seen an eruption on Mars, they think there could be some in the future.
Jupiter: Scientists have found volcanoes and observed volcanic activity only on lo, Jupiter’s moon. Eruptions from lo’s volcanoes are so massive that it can been seen by a spacecraft that is pretty far from lo.
Saturn: Saturn’s moon Enceladus has cryovolcanoes. These volcanoes are similar to regular volcanoes, except they spew water and other gases like geysers.
Uranus: Since it is a gas planet, it does not have any volcanoes.
Neptune: While Neptune doesn’t have volcanoes as it is a gas planet, its frozen moon, Triton, has cryovolcanoes that are active.
Picture Credit : Google