- Original Caption Released with Image:
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New Horizons took this image of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io with its Long
Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at 15:15 Universal Time on February
28, 2007, nearly 10 hours after the spacecraft's closest approach to
Jupiter. The image is centered at Io coordinates 5 degrees south, 92
degrees west, and the spacecraft was 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million
miles) from Io. Io's diameter is 3,640 kilometers (2,262 miles).
Io's dayside was deliberately overexposed in this image to bring out
details on the nightside and in any volcanic plumes that might be present.
Io cooperated by producing an enormous plume, 330 kilometers (200 miles)
high, from the volcano Tvashtar. Near Io's north pole, Tvashtar was active
throughout New Horizons' Jupiter encounter.
In this image, volcanic debris from the plume, illuminated by the setting
sun, rains down onto Io's nightside. Hot, glowing lava at the source of
the plume is the bright point of light on the sunlit side of the
terminator (the line separating day and night). Elsewhere along the
terminator, mountains catch the setting sun. The nightside of Io is lit
up by light reflected from Jupiter.
- Image Credit:
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NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest
Research Institute
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