By Ron Cowen
Two spacecraft jointly eyeing Jupiter’s moon Io, the most volcanically active body in the solar system, have spotted a towering new plume.
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Both the height and location of the eruption, imaged last December and January by the Cassini and Galileo craft, make it a standout. It’s the first active volcano found near one of Io’s poles. Moreover, this sulfurous inferno reaches an altitude of nearly 400 kilometers. Only one other Io plume is as tall–a long-lived one spewing from the prominent volcano Pele.