Amirani (volcano)

Galileo color mosaic of Amirani and its flow field

Amirani is an active volcano on Jupiter's moon Io, the inner-most of the Galilean Moons. It is located on Io's leading hemisphere at 24°28′N 114°41′W / 24.46°N 114.68°W / 24.46; -114.68 (Amirani).[1] The volcano is responsible for the largest active lava flow in the entire Solar System, with recent flows dwarfing those of even other volcanos on Io.[2]

The volcano was first observed in images acquired by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in March 1979.[3] Later that year, the International Astronomical Union named this feature after a Georgian fire god, Amirani.

  1. ^ "Amirani". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). 2009-04-09. Retrieved 2014-06-27.
  2. ^ "Amirani's Big Lava Flow on Io - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Collection". Archived from the original on 2012-06-10. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
  3. ^ Smith, B. A.; et al. (1979). "The Jupiter system through the eyes of Voyager 1". Science. 204 (4396): 951–972. Bibcode:1979Sci...204..951S. doi:10.1126/science.204.4396.951. PMID 17800430. S2CID 33147728.