Friday, May 20, 2011

moon that looks like a pizza.


Nasa scientists have discovered a vast ocean of molten rock beneath the surface of a moon that looks like a pizza.

Io, which orbits the giant planet of Jupiter, is the most volcanically active world in the solar system.
Though it is only a quarter the diameter of the Earth, it produces around 100 times more lava than all the volcanoes on Earth put together.

Like a big pizza pie: The moon Io looks like a margherita pizza due bursts of lava peppering its surface

Now U.S. scientists at the universities of California and Michigan have found that the lava flows from an ocean of magma 20-30 miles beneath Io's surface and more than 30 miles deep.
Io's pizza-like appearance is due to material on the surface being constantly replenished by the eruptions that pepper its surface like a bad dose of acne.

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