NASA's Juno  mission captures stunning view of Jupiter with its volcanic moon, Io

BY -srushti sharma

The Juno spacecraft of  NASA has taken a magnificent new image of Jupiter and  its lava-filled moon Io

This image was captured  by Juno as it flew by Io in preparation for its 53rd  close flyby of Jupiter  the following day

With Jupiter in the  foreground, the image  shows the gas giant's  colorful cloud bands and swirling patches up close

Io's background sliver  provides a clear view of  the moon's molten- red surface

Alain Mirón Velázquez,  a citizen scientist developed  this stunning image using unprocessed data from the JunoCam instrument  by improving the celestial planets' contrast, colour,  and clarity

There are 92 moons in all orbiting Jupiter, the largest  planet in our solar system.  The fourth-largest moon  in the solar system and  Jupiter's fifth moon, Io,  is just marginally bigger  than the moon of Earth

The solar system's most volcanically active body  is Io, which has hundreds of volcanoes that frequently  erupt with molten lava and  shoot plumes of sulphurous  gas hundreds of miles  into space

Recent near flybys of Io  have made it possible for researchers to learn even  more about the volcanic  moon's tormented surface

Since 2007, Juno has given scientists the best looks at Io,  and during even closer  encounters in late 2023  and early 2024, the spacecraft  will collect further  photographs and data  from its suite of  scientific instruments