October 9, 2007 1:35 PM PDT
New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager captured variations in an eruption of the Tvashtar volcano on Io from late February to early March. The pictures are taken as far as 1.9 million miles away, and the plume is roughly 200 miles high. The cause of the fine wispy structure in the plume, which varies from image to image, is unknown, but these pictures may help scientists understand the phenomenon, according to NASA.
Photo by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
