PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA00536: Geologic Landforms on Io
 Target Name:  Io
 Is a satellite of:  Jupiter
 Mission:  Galileo
 Spacecraft:  Galileo Orbiter
 Instrument:  Solid-State Imaging 
 Product Size:  800 x 800 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  University of Arizona / LPL
 Producer ID:  P48144 MRPS77809
 Addition Date:  1997-12-18
 Primary Data Set:  Galileo EDRs
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA00536.tif (685.5 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA00536.jpg (126.1 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

Shown here is one of the highest-resolution images of Io (Latitude: -60 to +20 degrees, Longitude: 150 to 230 degrees) acquired by the Galileo spacecraft, revealing a great variety of landforms. There are rugged mountains several miles high, layered materials forming plateaus, and many irregular depressions called volcanic calderas. Similar landforms were seen near Io's south pole by the Voyager spacecraft, but Galileo has revealed that such landforms are ubiquitous. Several of the dark, flow-like features correspond to hot spots, and may be active lava flows. There are no landforms resembling impact craters, as the volcanism covers the surface with new deposits much more rapidly than the flux of comets and asteroids can create large impact craters.

North is to the top of the picture and the sun illuminates the surface from the left. The image covers an area 2000 kilometers wide and the smallest features that can be discerned are 2.5 kilometers in size. This image was taken on November 6th, 1996, at a range of 245,719 kilometers by the Solid State Imaging (CCD) system on the Galileo Spacecraft.

Launched in October 1989, Galileo entered orbit around Jupiter on December 7, 1995. The spacecraft's mission is to conduct detailed studies of the giant planet, its largest moons and the Jovian magnetic environment. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.

This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the Galileo mission home page on the World Wide Web at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Image Addition Date:
1997-12-18