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NASA unveiled a striking image of Jupiter's moon Io rising on the horizon of the gas giant, captured by the Juno spacecraft.
Slightly larger than Earth's moon, Io is the most volcanic world in the solar system. The enhanced color image was taken on October 29, 2018 as the spacecraft made its 16th close flyby of Jupiter, NASA said in a statement.
Juno was about 18,400 kilometers from the summit of the planet's clouds at about 32 degrees south latitude.
Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstadt and Justin Cowart created the image using data from the probe's JunoCam imager. JunoCam raw footage is available online and can be viewed by the public.
NASA's Juno satellite was launched on August 5, 2011 and arrived in Jupiter in July 2016.
Juno's main goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Under its dense cloud cover, Jupiter protects the secrets of the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation.
As the first example of the solar system on a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide essential knowledge to understand the planetary systems discovered around other stars.
With its suite of scientific instruments, Juno will study the existence of a solid planetary core, map the intense magnetic field of Jupiter, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere and observe the aurora of the planet. .
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