Montage of images of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io

© Nasa/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Goddard Space Flight Cente

Infrared Jupiter, erupting Io

As it’s World Space Week, we’re featuring this montage of images of Jupiter, taken in 2007 on a flyby of the planet by the New Horizons probe. If Jupiter looks a little different than usual, it’s because the image was taken using the space probe’s near-infrared imaging spectrometer. In this false-colour image, Jupiter’s high-altitude clouds, like its stormy Great Red Spot, are rendered white, while deeper cloud formations take on reddish hues.

The planet's innermost moon, Io, is captured in a true-colour composite image during one of its frequent volcanic eruptions. A close look will show lava is glowing red beneath the blue and white plume of particles being ejected into the moon’s thin atmosphere.

Space Week is a UN-recognised event that runs each year from 4 October, the anniversary of the launch of Sputnik in 1957, to 10 October, which is the anniversary of the signing of the Outer Space Treaty in 1967.