Jupiter, Io

This image provided by NASA Tuesday Oct. 9, 2007 shows a montage of New Horizons images of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io, taken during the spacecraft?s Jupiter flyby in early 2007. New Horizons passed Jupiter on Feb. 28, 2007 riding the planet?s gravity to boost its speed and shave three years off its trip to Pluto. It was the eighth spacecraft to visit Jupiter ? but a combination of trajectory, timing and technology allowed it to explore details no probe had seen before, such as lightning near the planet?s poles, the life cycle of fresh ammonia clouds, boulder-size clumps speeding through the planet?s faint rings, the structure inside volcanic eruptions on its moon Io, and the path of charged particles traversing the previously unexplored length of the planet?s long magnetic tail. The prominent bluish-white oval is the Great Red Spot. The Io image is an approximately true-color composite taken by the panchromatic Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager. New Horizons is the first mission in NASA?s New Frontiers Program of medium-class spacecraft exploration projects. (AP Photo/NASA)

Add a comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *