There's a Stunning Detail Lurking in Juno's Latest Pic of Jupiter

The probe was tasked with studying Jupiter, the king of the planets.

A planet the size of Jupiter is not without its friends.

One of the gas giant's moons is bigger than Mercury. Sometimes, the moons show up photobombing pictures of the Big Jupe itself, as they explore the relationship between them and their host planet.

It almost looks like an artwork of science fiction. On the southern hemisphere, Jupiter's classic bands of roiling, swirling cloud and spot-like cyclones are visible in the sunlight.

The NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Luck is a part of it.

There are two small specks to the right of the giant planet. The largest of Jupiter's four Galilean moons was discovered by Galileo.

The two pictured here are the smallest of the four, with an equatorial diameter of 2,264 miles.

The NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Luck is a part of it.

Each of these moons is a fascinating target for study. Io has over 400 active volcanoes on its surface, making it the most volcanically active body in the Solar System. The internal stresses placed on the moon by Jupiter are the reason for these.

The volcanic activity causes Io's atmosphere to become rich in sulfur dioxide. The atmosphere around Jupiter constantly leaks, forming a plasma torus, which is formed when the magnetic fields of Jupiter hit the poles.

The moon's predominantly yellow hue is due to the sulfur coating Io itself in various sulfur compounds.

The image is a true-color one.

There is interest in the search for life outside Earth. There is an interior liquid ocean beneath its pale, icy shell. The moon may be heated internally by the stress of being far from the Sun.

If this is the case, there may be some sort of volcanic activity on the floor of the global sea. The food webs that rely on photosynthesis to survive are found here on Earth in the vents.

It has led to the belief that Enceladus is the most likely place to find extraterrestrial life in the Solar System.

These two worlds are very different.

The probe will visit the target of a dedicated mission in September of this year. It will be the closest probe to the moon in decades. Io is scheduled for flybys in the early and late 20th century.

The full-size version of this image can be downloaded from the NASA website.