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Huge Volcanic Eruption Observed on Io

minesweeper writes "Astronomers at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii recently monitored the largest volcanic eruption ever observed on Jupiter's moon Io. The eruption took place in February 2001, though image analysis was only recently completed by a team of University of California, Berkeley, astronomers. More info is available from the Berkeley press release, and an image is available here."

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  1. Article at New Scientist by minesweeper · · Score: 4, Interesting
    There's now an article at New Scientist: Titanic volcanic eruption seen on Io

    Interesting snip:

    The volcano is far more powerful than any eruption recorded by scientists on Earth, with an estimated power output of about 78,000 gigawatts. By comparison, the power produced by the last significant eruption of Mount Etna in Italy in 1992 was just 12 gigawatts.