manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. These features may provide evidence for springs of some liquid, probably a sulfur compound rather than water. Arrows in the inset indicate some examples of these. Several intriguing, narrow, channel-like features about 10 meters (11 yards) wide and a few hundred meters (yards) long can be seen. Sublimation of sulfur-dioxide-rich substances, their transition from solid to gaseous form, may also play a role in the segregation of bright and dark materials. In places, layers of bright and dark material appear to have been exposed by some process of erosion. The surface is quite varied in appearance, ranging from smooth patches of material to the much rougher top of the promontory. Galileo scientists estimate that the promontory is up to 400 meters (one-fourth mile) high. A raised promontory at the bottom of the center image casts shadows into the lower right corner of the left image. The Sun illuminates the surface from the right, but topographic shading is difficult to see because of the strong contrasts in brightness of the surface materials. The image is centered at 32 degrees north latitude and 193 degrees west longitude The images are rotated relative to one another because of Galileo's great speed as it flies above the surface of Io. North is to the top of the images and the entire mosaic spans about 17 kilometers (11 miles) from east to west. This mosaic of images acquired by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on February 22, 2000, shows the highest resolution view ever obtained of the surface of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io, 5 to 6 meters (16 to 20 feet) per picture element. It will take eight years, however, before Juice reaches its destination.įollow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter. The Jovian system will get a new visitor in the future, the European Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission, which is scheduled to launch in April 2023. Other missions have previously taken a look at Jupiter and its moons including Galileo, Cassini and Voyager. "Young, bright terrain appears colder than dark terrain, with the coldest region sampled being the city-sized impact crater Tros. "When we combined the MWR data with the surface images, we found the differences between these various terrain types are not just skin deep," Bolton said. The instrument was able to measure the structure, purity and temperature of the moons' water ice and their underlying oceans up to the depths of 15 miles (24 km). Measurements from Juno's Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument even allowed the team to peer underneath Europa's and Ganymede's ice cover for the first time. Jupiter's true colors pop in new images from NASA's Juno mission NASA's Juno probe will peer beneath the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa Juno spacecraft snaps gorgeous photo of Jupiter's atmosphere, 2 big moons The September 2022 flyby of Europa generated the first-ever 3D observation of the icy world's frozen shell. The flyby of Ganymede in 2021 produced a flurry of papers on the moon's surface, magnetic field, interior and interaction with Jupiter's magnetosphere. "With each close flyby, we have been able to obtain a wealth of new information."Īlthough Juno's sensors were primarily designed to study the gaseous giant, they have been delivering outstanding results also during the examination of the Jovian moons, Bolton added. "The team is really excited to have Juno's extended mission include the study of Jupiter's moons," Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio said in the statement. The observations of Io are part of Juno's extended mission, which commenced in 2021. Although Io is unlikely to host life, unlike Ganymede and Europa, scientists are still eager to get a detailed glimpse of this moon, which is the most tectonically active body in the entire solar system. Some of the lava geysers erupt into heights of dozens of miles, or kilometers, according to NASA. Io's surface, on the contrary, is covered in lakes of lava spouting from hundreds of volcanoes scattered on the moon's surface. Io is very different from the ice-encrusted moons Ganymede and Europa, which are both believed to hide oceans of water underneath their frozen surfaces, which, scientists think, might harbor primitive forms of life.
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