By
Jose Ceja
Arizona Daily Wildcat
UA researchers analyze images of Io from Galileo craft
New images from the Galileo spacecraft show an accumulation of a snow-like substance on the surface of one of Jupiter's moons, a UA researcher said.
Moses Milazzo, a graduate research assistant in the planetary sciences department at UA and a member of the team analyzing the images of the moon Io, said the sulfur-rich material is behaving in a very strange manner.
"If this is just surface material, this volatile stuff, than why does it cover all of the surface, and why hasn't it gone to the poles?" Milazzo asked.
But he said he believes that the crust on Io is recycling the volatile material in a manner similar to the behavior of the earth's plate tectonics.
Milazzo is part of a team of ten researchers funded by NASA and headed by Michael Belton, who is the team leader of Galileo's SSI imager, the camera Galileo uses.
Galileo, launched in 1989, reached Jupiter in December 1995 and has transmitted about 5,000 images back to Earth, Milazzo said.
Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet, makes up nearly two-thirds of the planetary mass of the solar system.
It takes approximately 35 minutes for a signal sent from Galileo to reach Earth, Milazzo said.
Many are surprised that Galileo is still able to transmit quality images, Milazzo said. It is unlikely that Galileo - which has experienced various technical problems - could be misleading researchers, he said.
"We can tell when the images aren't what they should be because they usually come up scrambled," he said.
Io, the most volcanically active body in the solar system, also may be important in understanding similar conditions on ancient earth, Milazzo said.
"Studying Io may very well help us study the earth's past," he said.
Belton said that the planet Jupiter also may be helpful in understanding atmospheric patterns on earth.
"We are also looking at the atmosphere of Jupiter, which has a connection with terrestrial meteorology," Belton said.
