Astronomy Picture of the Day ·

Io Rotating

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 31, 1996 is “Io Rotating,” an image. It is credited to Credit: The Galileo Project, JPL, NASA. The original explanation runs about 120 words.

Io Rotating
Credit: The Galileo Project, JPL, NASA Shown from science.nasa.gov. Not hosted by OpenOrbit.

From the explanation

“Explanation : Are any volcanoes on Io currently erupting? To help answer this, scientists instructed the robot spacecraft Galileo to take hourly pictures of this moon of Jupiter prior to its most recent encounter.”

— APOD editors, December 31, 1996

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date
December 31, 1996
Type
Image
Credit
Credit: The Galileo Project, JPL, NASA
Copyright
No copyright notice on the entry. Check the credited institution’s own usage rules before reusing it.
Explanation length
About 120 words

All of December 1996 → · 1996 by month → · Full archive since 1995 →

Topics in this entry

Jupiter

Topics are matched from words in the title and explanation.

On this day: December 31 in other years

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Source

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.