AstroKidsEverything in the sky › Io
moon · moon of Jupiter

Io

The most volcanic place in the whole solar system. Jupiter's pull kneads Io like a ball of dough, and that squeezing is what keeps it hot enough to erupt. It is about the size of our own Moon.

🕒 When can I see it?🚀 Travel there
Io — Drawn, not photographed.

What it is

Most volcanically active body in the solar system, squeezed and heated by Jupiter's gravity.

Moon: Orbits a planet rather than the star. Every kind of thing there is →

How to find Io

Its position moves, so there is no fixed place on a map to point at. The Planetarium works out where it is for your own place and date.

What you will really see

With binoculars

Binoculars find it, especially braced against a wall or a fence — it stays a point of light, but now you know which point.

Through a small telescope

A tiny point right beside its bright planet — steady the telescope and wait.

🔭 See it drawn as it looks through a telescope
🖨️ A sheet to print for this
🖨️ Print a sheet and go and look
🖨️ Sheet to take outside →

Worth knowing about Io

Io is about the same size as our Moon. In weight, about 1/67th of Earth. Io keeps one face turned towards Jupiter, so from that side Jupiter hangs in one place and never moves — a striped wall about forty times as wide as our Moon looks to us.

Its surface
The most volcanically active place in the solar system; Jupiter's gravity squeezes and heats it constantly.
How it moves
About as long as a long weekend.
The machines we sent
Studied by Voyager 1, Galileo, and Juno.
How did anyone measure the Earth in the first place?
The numbers
Across3 643 km
Distance from the planet it orbits421 700 km
Once round its orbit42.5 hours
One spin42.5 hours
Made of, among other thingssulfur, rock (basalt)

How anyone knows this

Nobody flew a tape measure out there. Every number on this page was worked out from the ground:

What it belongs to

☀️ Everything the Sun holds, in one place📖 How the solar system fits together

Then go outside

Clear tonight? The Planetarium will show you what is worth a look. Then just go out.

🌙 Plan an evening outside🌌 Everything else in the sky