Io, moon of Jupiter
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Courtesy of NASA

Io is a Salty Moon!
News story originally written on January 3, 2003

The volcanoes on Io, a moon of Jupiter, are shooting salt into the moon’s atmosphere. The salt spurts out as a gas and adds sodium to the clouds.

Scientists have known that the atmosphere was salty for decades but they did not know how it happened.

Now scientists have discovered that it is the many volcanoes that are causing the moon to be so salty. Io is more volcanically active than any other planet or moon in our solar system!


Last modified January 3, 2003 by Lisa Gardiner.

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