Description
A massive hot spot near the south pole of Io can be seen near the center of this annotated image taken by the JIRAM infrared imager aboard NASA's Juno on Dec. 27, 2024, during the spacecraft's flyby of the Jovian moon. The hot spot is larger than Earth's Lake Superior.
At the time of closest approach during the flyby, Juno came within about 46,200 miles (74,400 kilometers) of the moon.
JIRAM, short for Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper, was contributed to the Juno mission by the Italian Space Agency.
More information about Juno is at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu.
