WIRED Staff
Science

Slideshow: Io as You've Never Seen It

NASA's got some new pictures of Io, one of Jupiter's moons. They were taken earlier this year and include images of a dazzling volcanic crater.
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Major questions remain about how Io's mountains form and how they are related to its ubiquitous volcanoes. Although Io is extremely active volcanically, few of its mountains appear to be volcanoes. Scientists will use these images to investigate the geologic history of Tohil Mons and its relationship to the neighboring volcanic features.NASA/JPL

See related story: Io as You've Never Seen It

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A thermal portrait of Tupan collected by the near-infrared mapping instrument on Galileo, compared to a visible-light image from Galileo�s camera for geographical context. Reds and yellows in the infrared map indicate hotter regions; blues are cold. Tupan, a volcano active on Io since at least 1996, was named for the Brazilian native god of thunder.

NASA/JPL
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Wonderful colors show varied results of lava interacting with sulfur-rich materials in the volcanic crater named Tupan Patera on Jupiter's moon Io. Tupan Patera is about 75 kilometers (47 miles) across and is surrounded by cliffs about 900 meters (3000 feet) tall.

NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
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The temperature map is superimposed here on images from Galileo�s camera, covering volcanoes Pele (Pe), Pillan (Pi), Babbar (Ba) and others. It extends southward almost to Io�s south pole.

NASA/JPL