An area around the volcano of about 40,000 square kilometers, area about the size of New Jersey, has been covered by new volcanic deposits. Io Glowing in the Dark Volcanic hot spots and auroral emissions glow on the dark side of Jupiter's moon Io in the image at left. It is the best and highest-resolution image ever acquired of hot spots or auroral features on Io. The mosaic at right of 1979 Voyager images is shown with an identical scale and projection to identify the locations of the hot spots seen in the Galileo image. The grid marks are at 30 degree intervals of latitude and longitude.
North is to the top.
Greenish areas seen near the limb, or edge of the moon, are probably the result of auroral or airglow emissions of neutral oxygen or sulfur atoms in volcanic plumes and in Io's patchy atmosphere. Io's Full Disk Io, the most volcanic body in the solar system, is seen in front of Jupiter's cloudy atmosphere in this image from NASA's Galileo spacecraft, now orbiting the giant planet. This newly processed image is the best and highest resolution view of Io produced thus far by Galileo. The image is centered on the side of Io that always faces away from Jupiter. The black and bright red materials correspond to the most recent volcanic deposits, probably no more than a few years old.