The Fountains of Io

Our little old solar system is getting downright paparazzied. There are spacecraft flying all over the place.

The New Horizons spacecraft (zipping past Jupiter on its way to Pluto) took this rather incredible snapshot of Jupiter's moon Io. There are no less than three actively spewing volcanoes in the shot. the most dramatic is Tvashtar with its 180 mile high plume near Io's north pole. But a beautiful symmetrical fountain can be seen gushing from the Prometheus volcano at the left edge. And at the bottom, just inside the shadow, is a plume that catches the setting sun.