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Io is visible in front of Jupiter and casting a shadow on its clouds. Io appears to the left of its shadow in front of Jupiter. Jupiter's clouds appear grayish-blue in the image because of the type of light used to observe it.

Jupiter and Io

While hunting for volcanic plumes on the volatile moon Io, the Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Io sweeping across the giant face of Jupiter and casting its shadow below. The smallest details visible on Io and Jupiter measure 93 miles (150 kilometers) across, or about the size of Connecticut. The bright patches on Io are regions of sulfur dioxide frost. On Jupiter, the white and brown regions distinguish areas of high-altitude haze and clouds; the blue regions depict relatively clear skies at high altitudes.

Image Credit: John Spencer (Lowell Observatory) and NASA
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