[00:05.75]The American space agency has released to the public the first of many new pictures of Jupiter's Moon,Io.
[00:15.41]NASA's Galileo spacecraft took the pictures last July and October using both black and white film and color film.
[00:25.73]Researchers combined the images to provide more detail of the moon's surface.
[00:33.75]The new pictures have given astronomers a great deal of information about the small moon.
[00:39.52]They show areas affected by active volcanoes.
[00:44.20]One area clearly shows red material near the base of a mountain.
[00:50.49]Scientists say the material may be sulfur gases escaping along a large cut in the surface near the bottom of the mountain.
[01:00.92]They also say this release of volcanic material may be what helped form the mountain.
[01:08.86]The pictures provide enough information for scientists to guess at the size of several objects on the surface of Io.
[01:18.84]For example, the lengths of the shadows formed by the mountains make it possible to guess their heights.
[01:26.36]The pictures suggest that one mountain may be about eight kilometers tall.
[01:32.13]Another is about four kilometers tall.
[01:35.82]The pictures are very colorful.
[01:39.37]They show red, yellow, white and orange-black places.
[01:44.72]The surface of Io is mostly sulfur with some frozen sulfur dioxide.
[01:51.73]The pictures also show a mostly flat surface except for the mountains created by volcanoes.
[01:59.85]NASA scientists said the Galileo spacecraft made the pictures while working in areas with great amounts of radiation near Io.
[02:11.11]The scientists said the radiation did affect the spacecraft's computers but it did not damage them.
[02:19.73]Galileo took even closer pictures of Io on Tuesday,February twenty-second.
[02:27.83]These pictures were taken as Galileo passed as close as 198 kilometers from the moon.
[02:36.66]The newer pictures are now being sent back to Earth.
[02:41.15]They also will be released to the public as soon as scientists have studied Io is a very unusual place.
[02:51.52]Scientists say there is no evidence of holes caused by space objects on its surface.
[02:59.07]They say this means the surface of Io is much younger than one million years old.
[03:06.49]They say also that the surface of Io is always changing.
[03:11.92]The change is caused by intense volcanic activity. |