Side by side comparison of a Juno image from February 2024 and a Galileo image from 1997, revealing a new volcano

This Juno image from February (right) reveals a new volcano that wasn’t there in a Galileo image from 1997 (left)

Galileo/JunoCam/NASA

A fresh volcano with lava flows spanning hundreds of kilometres has appeared on Jupiter’s moon Io. It has formed in the 27 years between flybys of two spacecraft.

Astronomers first took detailed photos of Io, the most volcanically active body in the solar system, with NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, which was studying Jupiter and its moons between 1995 and 2003.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting…