Volcanic Activity in the Universe

We probably take for granted that we live in a planet with a warm interior that occasionally breaks through the hardened crust of material to spew lava. This process of allowing molten material to come out through fissures in the crust or cones formed from holes is what has differentiated the land from the water on our planet and is what hosts us and allows us to live here.

At least once moon in the solar system, Io, a moon of Jupiter, has active volcanos as well. We have been able to study the chemical composition of those volcanoes to compare them to our own, and we will eventually get there too. It appears that it is made  up largely of sulfur and sulfur dioxide.

What makes the liquid core of these places in the universe interesting is their chemical composition, because what they are made of determines other properties, such as a magnetic field. Magnetic fields are essential to life because they protect the planet or moon from the solar wind.

Our Earth’s mantle is made up of a swirling mass of electrically conductive liquid iron and nickel, resulting in a geodynamo. This molten electrically conductive material moves creating their own magnetic field, allowing all of us on planet Earth, essentially all life, to exist. In the 4.5 billion year history of the Earth, this has been there.

I think we have to conclude that there are billion of bodies out there in the universe with molten cores, covered with volcanos that result in land construction, and that these locations need to be a target for investigation for the possibility of harboring life beyond Earth.