The new analysis, which has been accepted for publication in Icarus, revealed a few surprises, including a clustering of extremely bright volcanoes in the south, an apparent progression of volcanic activity across the surface, and strange stirrings inside Loki Patera, an 126 mile-wide lava lake that’s been observed to brighten up every few years.

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Prior to 2002, those brightening episodes propagated around the lake in a counter-clockwise direction, but in recent years, they seem to have reversed. “This was bizarre,” de Kleer told Gizmodo.

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Mostly, the work serves as a reminder that we still understand very little about Io’s flagrant outbursts, which are thought to be powered by tidal heating from Jupiter’s gravitational pull. “We want to understand tidal heating as a process better,” de Kleer said, noting that the same process promotes warm liquid water oceans beneath the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa, and Saturn’s Enceladus. “Places that are considered the most potentially habitable all have tidal heating.”

Not all places with tidal heating are potentially habitable, however. Io, which looks like a fossilized jaw-breaker doused in acid and whose atmosphere collapses pretty regularly, certainly isn’t the first moon I’d buy cosmic real estate on. Still, it’s proven an astounding place to study from afar.

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[UC Berkeley News]