PIA26490: NASA's Juno Sees New Flows at Zal Montes
 Target Name:  Io
 Is a satellite of:  Jupiter
 Mission:  Juno
 Spacecraft:  Juno
 Instrument:  Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) 
 Product Size:  2642 x 2012 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  SwRI
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA26490.tif (5.618 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA26490.jpg (307.4 kB)

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Original Caption Released with Image:

A zoom of a Dec. 30, 2023, image from the Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft shows Io's night side while illuminated by Jupiter-shine. A strong stretch has been applied to highlight features observed by the SRU in the Zal Montes-Patera region, including a new 25-mile-long (41-kilometer-long) branch of fresh lava flow (indicated by the orange arrow) located to the west of Zal Patera's prior western boundary.

A new bright ring segment (indicated by the yellow arrow) is seen to the south of the new flow and may be associated with its formation. A possible low-angle jet of vaporized sulfur dioxide frost (circled in white) is observed at one of the lobed fronts of the new flow and is the first observation of a "Promethean-type jet" on Io since the original discovery at Prometheus by NASA's Galileo mission in 1999-2000.

More information about Juno is at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu.

Image Credit:
NASA/Caltech-JPL/SwRI

Image Addition Date:
2024-12-12