US space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has shared some terrifying images of Juipter’s moon Io.
- These images have been derived from the recent flybys of the Juno mission spacecraft. These images have been turned into some stricking animations that highlight two of the Jovian moon’s most dramatic features: a mountain and an almost glass-smooth lake of cooling lava.
- The spacecraft also provided close-up views and gathered data on a lava lake there known as Loki Patera, which spans 200 kilometers (127 miles) in length.
- Jupiter is the biggest planet in the solar system and it has a huge number of moons, unlike Earth which has just one.
- While the Earth’s satellite is a gentle and unremarkable world, the Jovian moons are quite active and volatile places that would terrify anyone. In fact, Io has been dubbed as being the most volcanically active moon in the solar system.
- Io is just a little bit bigger than our moon.
- Launched on August 5, 2011, NASA’s Juno spacecraft was sent on a 5-year journey to Jupiter.
