Fire and Ice: The Volcanoes of the Solar System

We tend to think of volcanoes erupting hot, molten lava and emitting huge, billowing clouds of incandescent ash. This isn't necessarily the case elsewhere in the Solar System. Some volcanoes aren't even particularly hot. Those on Pluto, for example, erupt an icy hydrocarbon slush that freezes to form ice mountains as hard as rock; by contrast the Jovian moon Io's volcanoes erupt the hottest lava in the solar System, the moon's surface being pockmarked with signs of volcanic activity.

Fire and Ice is an exploration of the Solar System's volcanoes. From the towering peaks of mars to the icy, seemingly dormant surfaces of Enceladus and Europa via the volcanoes on our own planet, Natalie Starkey explores the diversity of these cosmic features, asking how they form, how we've detected them, and what they can teach us about the inner workings of the planets.