The telescopic camera snapped the images during a 3-minute, 35-second span on February 10, when the spacecraft was 29 million kilometres from Jupiter. At this distance, Jupiter's diameter was 1,015 LORRI pixels - nearly filling the imager's entire (1,024-by-1,024 pixel) field of view. Features as small as 290 kilometers are visible.

Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

The image was centred at 85 degrees west longitude, in the 11 o'clock direction near Io's north pole. The plume depicted is about 290 kilometres high. Seen at first by the Hubble Space Telescope, and then two weeks later on February 26 2007 by New Horizons itself, this image is much clearer. This is due to longer exposure; there is an excellent view of the night-side illuminated by Jupiter.

The filamentary structure seen in the plume is similar to that seen in the 1979 Voyager images of the plume produced by Io’s volcano Pele. This is the first time that these mysterious structures have been seen so clearly.

Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

In a coordinated observation campaign started at the end of February 2007, ESA's Rosetta and NASA's New Horizon spacecraft are studying Jupiter's space environment, while travelling on their way to their respective destinations - comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and the Pluto system.

The picture comes from measurements taken by the Cassini spacecraft.

Credits: NASA