Image taken from Earth showing Jupiter's volcanic moon

Thanks to their excellent resolution, adaptive optics and sophisticated instruments, so-called Extremely Large Terrestrial Telescopes (ELTs) are increasingly capable of probing the universe, especially our neighbourhood: the solar system.

The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), located on Mount Graham in the US state of Arizona, is one such promising piece of equipment. With two 8.4-meter primary mirrors, the collection area is slightly larger than a 30-meter telescope.

The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), responsible for obtaining the highest resolution images ever taken of the soil of Jupiter's moon Io. Credit: Large Telescope Observatory

An international team led by the University of Arizona, which operates the LBT, recently obtained images of Jupiter's moon Io that represent the highest resolution images ever taken by a ground-based telescope.

The merged images below reveal surface features just 80 kilometers in diameter, a spatial resolution previously reserved for spacecraft like NASA's Juno spacecraft, which captured some of the most stunning images of Io's volcanoes.

Jupiter's moon Io, imaged by SHARK-VIS on January 10, 2024. This is the highest-resolution image of Io ever taken by a ground-based telescope. The image combines three spectral bands – infrared, red and yellow – to highlight the red ring around Pele volcano (below and to the right of the moon's center) and the white ring around Pele Patera, to the right of Pele. Source: INAF/Large Telescope Observatory/Georgia State University; IRV range observations by SHARK-VIS/F. Pedicini. Processed by D. Hope, S. Jefferies, G. Li Causi

The team was led by Al Conrad, an associate scientist in the University of Arizona's Department of Astronomy and the Stuart Observatory. Large Binocular Telescope Observatory (LBTO). Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the California Institute of Technology, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory also participated in the study.

An article describing LBT image analysis has been accepted for publication by a scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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Amazing details of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io

These images are made possible by the LBT's new SHARK-VIS instrument and the telescope's adaptive optics system.

The key to SHARK-VIS is a fast, extremely low-noise “snapshot” camera that captures slow-motion images that freeze optical distortions caused by atmospheric interference.

Gianluca Li Causi, director of SHARK-VIS data processing at the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics, explained how it works in… press release From the University of Arizona:

“We process our data on a computer to remove any trace of the sensor's electronic fingerprint. We then select the best frames and combine them using a highly efficient software package called Kraken, which was developed by our colleagues Douglas Hope and Stuart Jeffries at Georgia State University. Kraken allows us to remove atmospheric effects, revealing About Io with incredible clarity.

The SHARK-VIS image was so rich in detail that it allowed researchers to identify a large resurfacing event around Pele, one of Io's largest volcanoes found in the Southern Hemisphere near the equator (named after the Hawaiian god associated with fire and volcanoes). .

The image shows plume deposits around a pellet covered by volcanic sediments from Pilan Patera, a nearby volcano. NASA's Galileo probe observed a similar eruption sequence while exploring the Jupiter system between 1995 and 2003. However, this was the first time a ground-based observatory had obtained such detailed images.

Io is the innermost of Jupiter's moons (also known as the Galileo moons), which also includes Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Since NASA's Voyager 1 probe flew through the Jupiter system in 1979, scientists have been fascinated by Io and its volcanic properties.