Scientists Surprised to Capture 3 Massive Volcanic Eruptions on Jupiter's Moon Io

A new discovery on Jupiter's moon Io has led scientists to believe massive volcano eruptions are more common than previously thought.

According to a press release, NASA scientists recorded three huge volcanic eruptions on Io that took place in Aug. 2013, sending material hundreds of miles above the surface. Io is the innermost of Jupiter's four "Galilean Moons."

Jupiter is the solar system's largest planet and the gas giant has more than 60 moons. Io is 2,300 miles across and accompanies Earth in being the only bodies known to spout volcanic eruptions.

Three studies on the three recent eruptions on Io have been published in the journal Icarus.

"We typically expect one huge outburst every one or two years, and they're usually not this bright," Imke de Pater, lead author on one of the papers and a professor and chair of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, said in the release. "Here we had three extremely bright outbursts, which suggest that if we looked more frequently we might see many more of them on Io."

A co-author on the study, Ashley Davies, a volcanologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), is de Pater's long-time colleague.

"These new events are in a relatively rare class of eruptions on Io because of their size and astonishingly high thermal emission," Davies said in the release. "The amount of energy being emitted by these eruptions implies lava fountains gushing out of fissures at a very large volume per second, forming lava flows that quickly spread over the surface of Io."

The study authors said these eruptions are similar to the ones that likely led to the formation of planets in the solar system, including Earth and Venus.

"This will help us understand the processes that helped shape the surfaces of all the terrestrial planets, including Earth, and the moon," Davies said. "We are using Io as a volcanic laboratory, where we can look back into the past of the terrestrial planets to get a better understanding of how these large eruptions took place, and how fast and how long they lasted."