An infrared image of Jupiter’s volcanically active moon Io, taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft in July, was released last week. The distance between the device and the satellite at the time of shooting was 80 thousand kilometers.
The bright lights on Io’s surface are lava lakes or fountains several tens of kilometers high. In total, there are more than four hundred active volcanoes on the satellite.
But the true appearance of Io is far from the red ball, reminiscent of a New Year’s toy. If you look at the surface without an infrared filter, it will be golden with multi-colored inclusions, as in the picture from the Galileo spacecraft. The whitish and yellow hues come from volcanic sulfur.
Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016 and will continue its exploration until 2025. In particular, it is planned to study the interaction of Io’s volcanic eruptions with Jupiter’s magnetosphere and auroras.
