Three Views of Io's Southern Hemisphere

Images of Io captured in 2024 by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft show surface changes that occurred near the fiery Jovian moon's south pole. The arrow annotation highlights the location on Io's surface where these significant and visible surface changes took place between the 66th and 68th perijove, or the point during Juno's orbit when the spacecraft was closest to the gas giant. The resolution of each of the three Io images varies because it is dependent on the altitude at which the data was acquired. While the images from the 68th perijove are of lower resolution – since Juno was farther away – the relative changes in surface coloring around a newly discovered hot spot are clear. Such changes in Io's surface are known in the planetary science community to be associated with hot spots and volcanic activity. The leftmost image is the highest resolution of this area of Io, acquired during Perijove 60 on April 9, 2024, when the spacecraft came as close as about 10,250 miles (16,500 kilometers) from the moon. The center image was acquired at a distance of about 37,310 miles (60,050 kilometers) during Perijove 66 on Oct. 22, 2024. The image at right was acquired on Dec. 27, 2024, during Perijove 68, in which the spacecraft's flyby distance from Io was about 46,200 miles (74,400 kilometers). The JunoCam images were processed by citizen scientist Jason Perry. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26526