Description

This graphic illustrates the areas of Jupiter’s moon Io sampled by the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during two close flybys. The black overlapping lines show the instrument’s footprints during Perijove 57 on Dec. 30, 2023, when the spacecraft primarily mapped the northern hemisphere. The blue lines represent Perijove 58 on Feb. 3, 2024, which focused heavily on the moon’s mid-latitudes and equatorial regions. 

Both passes mapped the side of Io that constantly faces Jupiter. The sweeping, overlapping patterns are a result of the spacecraft spinning at two revolutions per minute as it flew past the moon at a distance of roughly 930 miles (1,500 kilometers). 

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The MWR was built by JPL. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.

More information about Juno is at: http://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu

Description

This map represents data captured by the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, indicating heat rising from just beneath the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io. While infrared instruments measure the temperature of the moon’s surface, the lowest frequency microwave channels (0.6 and 1.25 gigahertz) on the MWR can penetrate between about 6 and 20 feet (2 and 6 meters) into the crust. The colors on this map illustrate a distinct temperature gradient across the moon, with the most extreme, localized heat output in red. 

The most prominent red anomaly in the upper left (between 60 and 120 degrees west longitude) reveals subsurface temperatures 18 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 20 degrees Celsius, or 10 to 20 Kelvin)  warmer than the surrounding area. This massive regional heat source coincides with the Zal Montes Patera complex, an area where Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit observed an active lava flow. A second major subsurface heat source is also visible near the equator, stretching from 0 to 50 degrees west longitude. Together, these distinct microwave anomalies indicate significant internal heating occurring within the upper tens of meters of Io’s crust. 

Contrasting with these intense hot spots are the yellow and green regions, which reflect temperatures more common across the moon. The yellow areas represent intermediate temperatures that naturally warm up to near -190°F (-123°C, or 150 Kelvin) as they approach the equator. Meanwhile, the green areas, primarily visible toward the higher northern latitudes, indicate the coolest subsurface temperatures, dropping to around -298°F (-183°C, or 90 Kelvin) near the pole.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The MWR was built by JPL. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.

More information about Juno is at: http://www.nasa.gov/juno

Description

Data from the Earth-orbiting U.S.-India NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite’s L-band radar was used to produce an image of Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja — a mountaintop in East Antarctica — poking out amid a stream of ice flowing northeast to the ocean. The obstruction causes stresses in the ice, heavily fracturing the surrounding surfaces with deep cracks, called crevasses, which show as sharp green lines in the image. Produced in August 2025, the image has been nicknamed “the hummingbird” by NISAR scientists. 

The colors show differences in the way polarized microwave signals, which vibrate in different directions, interact with and reflect from the ice. Over Antarctica, NISAR transmits radar waves toward Earth with a horizontal polarization. The orientation of the signals that return, either horizontal, vertical, or both, provide clues about the object or surface that reflected them.

Signals that come back with a horizontal polarization likely bounced off a more regular surface, such as smooth ice. Those signals appear magenta in the image. Signals that return with vertical polarization may have refracted as they partially penetrated the ice or scattered at different angles as they reflected off irregular surfaces, like the faces of crevasses. Called volume scattering, these observations are displayed in green.

The white represents areas in which both magenta and green signals scatter back strongly, a possible indication that there is an equal blend of surface and volume scattering.

Figure A is an annotated version of image.

Managed by Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory leads the United States component of the project and provided the satellite’s L-band SAR and antenna reflector. The spacecraft bus and its S-band SAR were provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation. The NISAR satellite is the first to carry two SAR instruments at different wavelengths, collecting data using the spacecraft’s giant drum-shaped reflector, which measures 39 feet (12 meters) wide — the largest radar antenna reflector NASA has ever sent into space.

To learn more about NISAR, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/nisar/

Description

Captured by the multispectral imager instrument on NASA’s Psyche mission, this is an enhanced-color mosaic created from four individual images acquired on May 15, 2026, during the spacecraft’s flyby of Mars. 

Psyche was traveling from right to left (northeast to southwest on Mars) during the six minutes that it took to acquire the images for this mosaic, and the pixel scale resolution varies from 381 meters per pixel on the right to 440 meters per pixel on the left. The imager used its near-infrared, green, and blue filters, which helped to reveal highly contrasting craters, ridges, wind streaks, and volcanic plains materials on the surface.

The mosaic covers part of the Iapygia region of the rugged southern highlands of Mars, from approximately 62 degrees east to 78 degrees east longitude and 4 degrees north to 14 degrees south latitude. The largest crater, just below center, is called Fournier and is about 71 miles (114 kilometers) in diameter. The linear feature running from top to bottom of the mosaic just left of center is part of a long irregular cliff (or scarp) system called Oenotria Scopuli, which is part of the circular structure of the large Isidis impact basin to the northeast of this area.

For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/psyche/

Description

Billions of years ago, an hours-long Martian sandstorm blew so intensely that sand ripples began to climb upon one another as they moved across the surface. These layers of sediment eventually hardened into the multilayered rocks seen in this image, which was taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover on Dec. 12, 2024, the 4,391st Martian day, or sol, of the mission. 

Scientists believe this is the first evidence of climbing wind ripple strata on the Red Planet. Spotted at a location nicknamed “Jawbone Canyon,” these rocks are a rare time capsule preserving a dramatic wind event early in Martian history. A paper detailing the discovery was featured on the cover of the journal Geology on July 1, 2026.

Description

This orbital map shows the path NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took to get to a location the science team has dubbed the “Broom Point member,” a sequence of layered bedrock likely more than 3.9 billion years old. As planned, the rover landed inside Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. It investigated the crater’s western delta and inlet river valley, Neretva Vallis, before summiting the crater rim in December 2024 following a rim-to-crest climb of 2,620 feet (800 meters).

The Broom Point region is situated on the outer edge of the crater rim and was visited by the rover in mid-2025. The yellow dot indicates location where the rover took a selfie.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.

For more about Perseverance: science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/

JPL manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built MRO and supports its operations. The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information, visit:

science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-reconnaissance-orbiter