Io (moon)

Io ({{IPA2|?a?o?}}, eye'-oe, Greek Ιώ) is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. It is named after the Greek mythological figure Io, one of the many lovers of Zeus (who is also known as Jupiter in the Roman mythology).

Io in fiction

• Peter Hyams, the director of 2010, had previously made a film called Outland (1981), set in a mining colony on Io, although the moon itself had little importance to the plot.
• Io plays an important role in both the book and the film of Arthur C. Clarke's ' (1984). A spacecraft is found tumbling end over end in orbit around Io, coated with sulfur from the erupting volcanoes beneath it.
• In the television cartoon saga Exosquad (1993–1995), Io is the location of an Exofleet base and the scene of several critical battles between Terran and "Neosapien" forces.
• In the science fiction TV series Babylon 5 (1993–), Io is home to an Earth Alliance colony, second in size only to the colony on Mars.
• Michael Swanwick's Hugo award-winning short story "The Very Pulse of the Machine" (1998) is set on Io, and features elements of the volcanic, sulfurous landscape, as well as the powerful electrical flux between Io and Jupiter.
• In the BBC docudrama (2005), about a possible manned mission to various points of the Solar System, one astronaut lands on Io to collect samples of its rocks. However, due to radiation risks and the astronaut becoming exhausted, the EVA on Io is aborted early and the samples are abandoned.