Data gathered by a NASA spacecraft has revealed a stunning lake of lava on one of one of Jupiter's moons.
Scientists used information transmitted by the Juno probe to create an animation that shows the smooth, glass-like surface of Io's 127-mile-long lava lake, named Loki Patera, according to the space agency.
In addition to being the third-largest of Jupiter's 95 moons, Io is the most volcanically active world in our solar system, according to NASA.
"Io is simply littered with volcanoes, and we caught a few of them in action," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton said during a news conference in Vienna last week.
Bolton said Juno "got some great close-ups" of Loki Patera during two fly-bys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024, when it passed within about 930 miles of the hellish moon.
"The specular reflection our instruments recorded of the lake suggests parts of Io's surface are as smooth as glass, reminiscent of volcanically created obsidian glass on Earth," Bolton said.
Juno was launched on Aug. 5, 2011, to seek information about the origin and evolution of Jupiter, the largest planet in this section of the galaxy.
The solar-powered probe arrived at Jupiter on July 4, 2016, and circles the gas giant in a highly elliptical orbit that avoids most of its high-radiation regions.
Juno's $1.1 billion mission is expected to continue through September 2025 or until the craft stops working.
