Watch | NASA's Juno spacecraft spots glass-smooth lava lake and a mountain on a moon

In recent flybys of Jupiter’s moon Io, NASA’s Juno spacecraft spotted stunning images of the lunar surface - a mountain and an island amidst a lava lake. The new images from Io were released Thursday (April 18) by Scott Bolton, the principal investigator of the Juno mission at the European Geophysical Union’s General Assembly.

Jupiter’s natural satellite Iois the most volcanically active place in the entire Solar System, with hundreds of volcanoes on the lunar surface. These volcanoes make the study of the moon and its past quite difficult for scientists, but they look extremely enchanting.

“Io is simply littered with volcanoes, and we caught a few of them in action,” Bolton said in a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory release.

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“There is amazing detail showing these crazy islands embedded in the middle of a potential magma lake rimmed with hot lava. 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.”

Volcano, lava lake spotted on Jupiter’s moon Io

NASA’s Juno spacecraft carried out two flybys of Jupiter’s moon, one in December 2023 and the other in February 2024. Juno came within 930 miles (approx. 1500 kilometres) of the moon’s surface and captured volcanoes in action. It spotted Io’s northern latitudes and also imaged Jupiter’s moon Europa, where the icy surface stands in stark difference to Io’s fiery environment.

But the new images released Thursday collected new visualisations from Io, as the images were captured by JunoCam imager and collected by the spacecraft’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR).

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The Juno team nicknamed the recently visualised mountain “Steeple Mountain.” Though NASA documents did not mention the height of the structure, Io’s Boosaule Montes is one of its most towering structures, clocking in at about 10 miles (16 kilometres) tall.

Io’s “constant volcanism and intense radiation make Io an unlikely destination for life", said NASA in its official statement.

However, the moon is still a fascinating laboratory for researchers trying to understand solar system evolution. Io’s surface is always being renewed, as plains of lava coat the existing rock and cool into new layers.

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Further, the Junomission could help reveal the abundance of water on Jupiter and the nature of the planet's core, but right now, there is still a lot to study on Io alone.

Juno made its most recent flyby of Io this month, coming within 10,250 miles (16,500 km) of the moon. Its next flyby is scheduled for May 12.

(With inputs from agencies)