Figure 4 . A sample of Io images obtained from the Gemini North telescope using NIRI with the Altair adaptive optics system for tracking volcanic activity over a
29 month period . Image credit : Katherine de Kleer and Imke de Pater , UC Berkeley /
Gemini Observatory / AURA / W . M . Keck
Observatory
The observations spanned a period of 29 months and revealed patterns in the volcanic activity over time and location on the satellite ( Figure 4 ), but also resulted in new questions .
According to University of California Berkeley ( UCB ) Graduate Student Katherine de Kleer , some of the eruptions appeared to progress across the surface over time , as if one eruption somehow triggered another 500 kilometers away . “ While it stretches the imagination to devise a mechanism that could operate over distances of 500 kilometers , Io ’ s volcanism is far more extreme than anything we have on Earth and continues to amaze and baffle us .” De Kleer led the analysis of the data for this study with her advisor at UCB , Imke de Pater .
The results were presented at the American Astronomical Society ’ s Division of Planetary Sciences and the European Planetary Sciences Congress in Pasadena , California , in October . De Kleer and de Pater presented the results jointly based on a pair of papers in the journal Icarus , which are available here and here .
10 GeminiFocus January 2017