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Io in True Color

📖 3 min read 📊 beginner 🏷️ NASA APOD

In Brief

The strangest moon in the Solar System is bright yellow. The featured picture, an attempt to show how Io would appear in the "true colors" perceptible to the average human eye, was taken in 1999 July by the Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Io's colors derive from sulfur a...

Io in True Color

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The Full Story

The strangest moon in the Solar System is bright yellow. The featured picture, an attempt to show how Io would appear in the "true colors" perceptible to the average human eye, was taken in 1999 July by the Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Io's colors derive from sulfur and molten silicate rock. The unusual surface of Io is kept very young by its system of active volcanoes. The intense tidal gravity of Jupiter stretches Io and damps wobbles caused by Jupiter's other...

Key Takeaways

  • 1 Important astronomical discovery
  • 2 Advances our understanding
  • 3 Future research potential
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How We Know This

Scientific observation and analysis

What This Means

Contributes to our knowledge of the universe

Why It Matters

Important advance in astronomy

Related Topics

#astronomy #discovery