Io

Source: NASA

Meet IO, Jupiter’s fifth moon (pronounced eye-oh)! Io is several things in our solar system: the most volcanically active, the driest and most dense!

Now, if you all are like me and you’re thinking: “why in the heck does it look like THAT?” That is because Io is covered in lava lakes and sulfur is constantly spewed out of the surface. I’m just leveling with you- I personally do not want an Io scented candle. No thanks. As far as age goes, Io is about as old as her mother planet, Jupiter, at a whopping 4.5 billion years old!!! This icy + fiery body is roughly the size of our very own moon and was coincidentally discovered (by Galileo) right after Earth’s Moon! Io is the most unique body I have ever seen. To know that this moon is orbiting Jupiter 390.4 million miles away from where I’m sitting now is astonishing. Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.” I can just imagine God creating Io, making the volcanoes that spew from the surface, or “pour forth speech” and saying, “it is good.” Whatever God looks like (or doesn’t) to you, it is a thing to marvel at. The creation of our solar system and the universe we know so little about. It is a relentless effort of humankind: exploring our cosmos and unearthing what lies ahead.