Drive Dodger’s rover across Io, the most volcanic world in the Solar System, scanning science sites while eruptions rain debris around you.
Io is a moon of Jupiter, a little bigger than our own Moon. Squeezed and stretched by Jupiter’s gravity on every orbit, its interior heats up enough to power hundreds of active volcanoes.
You drive in Io’s real gravity, about a fifth of Earth’s, so the rover’s jetpack jumps float. The landscape itself is invented.
How to play
- W A S D / arrows
- Drive
- Space (hold)
- Jetpack
- Esc
- Pause
Go deeper: Why Io is so volcanic ▾
Io, Europa and Ganymede are locked in a rhythm: for every orbit Ganymede makes, Europa makes two and Io four. The regular tugs keep Io’s orbit slightly oval, so Jupiter’s pull on it rises and falls, flexing the moon and heating it from inside.
Go deeper: Jupiter in the sky ▾
Io always keeps the same face to Jupiter, so from that side Jupiter hangs still in the sky, about 19° across: some 37 times wider than the full Moon looks from Earth.
Sources & credits
- Jupiter colour map (Cassini composite, retouched) · Planet Pixel Emporium (James Hastings-Trew) · Copyright James Hastings-Trew. Free to use in renderings and real-time software; the maps may not be redistributed as is (Planet Pixel Emporium terms)