Io's crescent

Filed under pretty pictures, global views, Jupiter's moons, Io, New Horizons

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New Horizons captured this photo of Io with its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) as it sped away from the Jupiter system on March 3, 2007 at 06:11 UTC.

NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI

The plume of the giant volcano Tvashtar is brightly backlit by the Sun.  On the sunlit limb, there is a bright flash off of the smooth surface of the flat lava flows of Loki Patera; these flows look quite dark when seen with the Sun overhead, but in this lighting geometry the sunlight glances off the smooth surface as off a mirror, producing a flash of light.