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Happy New Year from Jupiter!   High Resolution Globe of Jupiter 30 December 2000 This true-colour simulated view of Jupiter is composed of 4 images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on December 7, 2000. To illustrate what Jupiter would have looked like if the cameras had a field-of-view large enough to capture the entire planet, the cylindrical map was projected onto a globe. The resolution is about 144 kilometers (89 miles) per pixel.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona  Jupiter's four largest satellites, including Io, the golden ornament in front of Jupiter in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, have fascinated Earthlings ever since Galileo Galilei discovered them in 1610 in one of his first astronomical uses of the telescope. This true-colour composite frame, made from narrow angle images taken on 12 December 2000, captures Io and its shadow in transit against the disk of Jupiter. The distance of the spacecraft from Jupiter was 19.5 million kilometres. The image scale is 117 kilometres per pixel.
The entire body of Io, about the size of Earth's Moon, is
periodically flexed as it speeds around Jupiter. As a
result of its non-circular orbit, it feels the periodically changing gravitational pull of the planet. The heat arising in Io's interior from this continual flexure makes it the most
volcanically active body in the solar system, with more than 100 active volcanoes. The white and reddish colors on its surface are due to the presence of different sulfurous materials. The black areas are silicate rocks.  Io's Atmosphere & Volcanoes 30 December 30 2000
The atmosphere and volcanic hotspots of Jupiter's moon Io are
apparent in this view of the moon in eclipse, taken by NASA's
Galileo spacecraft.  Storm on Jupiter 30 December 2000 NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured this false-color image of a storm on Jupiter. The inset shows areas of lightning at the same location as the storm, as viewed from the planet's dark side. Image Credit: NASA/JPL  Satellite Rings 30 December 30 2000 This image sequence, taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft as it approached Jupiter, shows the motions, over a 16 hour-period, of two satellites embedded in Jupiter's ring. The moon Adrastea is the fainter of the two, and Metis is the brighter. Images such as these will be used to refine the orbits of the two bodies. The composition was made from images taken during a 40-hour sequence of the Jovian ring on 11 December 2000.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona Release date: 31 March 2006 |