Stunning close-up of Jupiter’s moon is sharpest look ‘in a generation’

By Dean Murray via SWNS

A stunning close-up image of Jupiter's moon Io has been described as the "sharpest in a generation".

The incredible picture shows the moon lit up by "Jupitershine", its night side illuminated by reflected sunlight from the largest in the Solar System.

It was processed by so-called 'citizen scientist' Emma Wälimäki from raw data beamed back by NASA’s Juno spacecraft and submitted to the space agency.

Juno just made the closest flybys of the moon Io any spacecraft has carried out in more than twenty years - and has revealed lava lakes and islands.

On 30 December, Juno came within about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the surface of the solar system’s most volcanic world. It made a second ultra-close flyby of Io just this week.

The second pass went predominantly over the southern hemisphere of Io, while prior flybys have been over the north.

NASA says: "There’s a lot to see in these photos! There’s evidence of an active plume, tall mountain peaks with well-defined shadows, and lava lakes—some with apparent islands."

Such is the amount of data Juno beams back to Earth, the space agency has asked so-called citizen scientists to help out.

NASA says: "It will be a challenge to sort all of this out, and the JunoCam scientists need your help.

"Previous JunoCam volunteers like Gerald Eichstadt have seen their processed images appear in multiple scientific publications and press releases."