![]() ![]() On two consecutive nights, they observed the moon as it orbited from a location where it could receive sunlight to a position where Jupiter eclipsed the Sun. But the team here decided to go searching for it on Io and got a pretty good tool to use in the search: Hawaii's eight-meter Gemini North telescope, with hardware that let them zero in on the emissions of sulfur in the moon's atmosphere. Alternatively, if greenhouse gases freeze out first, further cooling can remove other gases from the atmosphere in a sort of chain reaction.Ītmospheric collapse is something that's generally considered hypothetical-something that might happen on an exoplanet or figure into Mars' distant past. If the atmosphere is dominated by a single type of gas, then the majority of it can collapse to the surface. Once this happens, the components condense on the surface. To get to the bottom of what's happening, an international team of researchers checked for a phenomenon called "atmospheric collapse." This phenomenon occurs when a body gets too cold for the primary components of its atmosphere to remain in a gaseous form. This has led to the suggestion that the atmosphere may be refreshed when some of the sulfur on Io's surface simply evaporates or sublimates. The atmosphere also experiences some variability based on which side of Io is receiving sunlight. Instead, the atmosphere appears to be concentrated on the side farther from Jupiter. Yet searches for this sort of localized atmosphere have produced ambiguous results. If that were the case, it would follow that Io's atmosphere would be thickest over areas with high volcanic activity. This could provide a steady supply of sulfur-rich material at high enough temperatures to vaporize it, thus constantly replenishing the atmosphere. One obvious possibility is the sulfur-rich volcanism that reshapes Io's surface. Still, the atmosphere is there, which raises the question of how it's maintained despite the intense radiation and magnetic fluxes that might otherwise ionize it and strip it away. But the kicker is that its major component is sulfur dioxide, which would react with the water in your lungs to form a strong acid. For one, it's incredibly thin, so nothing like a deep breath would even be possible. The atmosphere of Io doesn't make it the sort of place you'd want to draw a deep breath. Further Reading Io’s 10-mile-high mountains result from a shrinking crust ![]()
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