The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) located on Mount Graham in Arizona, thanks to its resolution, adaptive optics and sophisticated instruments, obtained an image of Jupiter's moon Io. This is the highest resolution photo ever taken by a ground-based device.
The images revealed surface features as small as 80 km. Spatial resolution previously reserved for spacecraft. These include NASA's Juno mission, which took some of the most stunning images of Io's volcanoes. These images were captured thanks to LBT's new SHARK-VIS instrument and the telescope's adaptive optics system. IN articles "Observation of the rise of Io through plume deposition using ground-based adaptive optics in the visible wavelength range with LBT SHARK-VIS (GRL)" American astrophysicists published an image of the space object.
Scientists used the SHARK-VIS camera installed on the LBT to capture Jupiter's satellite Io. It is a high-contrast optical coronagraphic imaging instrument designed and built at the INAF Astronomical Observatory in Rome.
The SHARK-VIS image was so rich in detail that it allowed researchers to identify the area around the Pele volcano, located in the southern hemisphere near the equator (and named after a Hawaiian deity associated with fire and volcanoes). The photo shows the deposition of the plume, which was formed as a result of the eruption of the nearby Pillan Patera volcano.
NASA's Galileo spacecraft observed a similar sequence of eruptions while exploring the Jupiter system between 1995 and 2003. However, this was the first time that a terrestrial observatory had taken such detailed pictures.
Experts saw deposits of dark lava and white sulfur dioxide from the eruption partially covering the red, sulfur-rich deposit. Before the application of SHARK-VIS, it was impossible to observe such floating phenomena from Earth.
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