APOD: 2022 July 17 - Europa and Jupiter from Voyager 1

Good morning, Rallypoint. The July 17th Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is one from the NASA archives: "Europa and Jupiter from Voyager 1." Voyager 1 was launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, and has been operating for (as of July 19th) 44 years, 10 months and 13 days. The spacecraft still communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and to transmit data to Earth.

Three spots on this 1979 image are of interest. The Great Red Spot (middle) is believed to be a storm active on Jupiter possibly since Giovanni Cassini's likely notation of it in 1665. At the lower left is the Jovian moon Europa. Existing data sets bolster the hypothesis that Europa has an underground ocean, making it a good place to look for extraterrestrial life. The dark spot at the upper right is the shadow of the volcanic moon Io. How volcanic is Io? Imagery indicates no evidence of impact craters as we see on other planetary satellites (such as our Moon).