What's New Io is one of 28 moons of Jupiter. Io is also one of the largest at 3630 km in diameter, only Ganymede and Callisto are larger. Io is also extremely volcanic, with hundreds of active volcanoes on its surface at any given time. In addition, Io has tremendously high mountains, which are not volcanoes, and tectonic faults that give rise to the mountains and volcanoes, as well as split the mountains apart. Io has a thin atmosphere consisting of sulfur dioxide mainly from plumes erupting from the volcanoes.
Sulfur dioxide acts very similar to water on earth.
It can be both a gas and a solid, and in some violent events, a liquid. Sulfur dioxide frost covers almost the entire surface, providing fuel for Io's tremendous plumes. Finally, Io is surrounded by a plasma torus, an ionized cloud of alkali metals, chlorine, sulfur monoxide, sulfur dioxide, oxygen, and sulfur orginating from Io but a part of the Jovian magnetic field. Also on this site you can order a book or movie concerning Io and learn about the author and look at other things I have written . You can also read and subscribe to the Tvashtar Sun , a newsletter dedicated to disseminating new findings about Io.