Why
do I find the Jupiter system so fascinating? Perhaps because it
is the place where, as we move away from the Earth, things start
to become seriously strange. The terrestrial rules no longer apply.
And most fascinating of all (for me, at least) is bizarre Io.
"Io's surface looks like nothing else in
the solar system. Why? Because its volcanoes make it the hottest
spot (other than the sun) in the solar system."
"Studying volcanoes in space is fascinating,
but it's also important because it better helps us understand volcanoes,
past and present, here on Earth. Io's eruptions let us look
at huge volcanic eruptions which are important on Earth but don't
occur often enough to study as they happen. On Io they happen all
the time."
