Striking image and video of 'Steeple Mountain' on Jupiter's moon Io are concept art — but authentic pics do exist
For example, one X user posted (archived) the image with the caption, "An actual mountain on Jupiter's moon Io." Other users also shared the image with similar captions, including one person who simply added (archived), crediting NASA, "Discovered on Jupiter's moon Io — Steeple Mountain looks like a mountain straight out of a fantasy novel."
(@latestinspace/X)
As NASA's website (archived) and at least one of the aforementioned X users noted (archived), however, the image and a sweeping video animation (archived) of the same scene were both conceptual artwork based on authentic data about a real feature on Io.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory spokesperson David C. Agle also confirmed by email that the image and video were artist's conceptions created from various data points that specialized equipment gathered as part of the Juno mission. The creator of the artwork sourced genuine, raw images of Steeple Mountain, which appear later in this article.
According to NASA, Steeple Mountain — a nickname credited (archived) to the Juno science team — stands (archived) between 3 and 4.3 miles (5 and 7 kilometers), or 15,840 to 22,704 feet, in height.
By comparison, Mount Everest stands at an elevation of 29,032 feet (8,849 meters) above sea level. The tallest mountain on Earth — measured not by elevation above sea level but rather from base to peak — is Mauna Kea in Hawaii, standing 33,481 feet (10,205 meters) in height.
The creators of the image and animation, which NASA first published in April 2024, sourced the data to create the two pieces of media from a special visible-light camera named JunoCam (archived), which captures (archived) three-color (red, green and blue) and methane-band images.
Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) created JunoCam for NASA's Juno mission, which launched in August 2011. The mission, focused on studying Jupiter and its moons, reached Jupiter's orbit on July 4, 2016.
NASA announced the mission would continue through September 2025, "or until the spacecraft's end of life."
On April 19, 2024, a Juno Mission website hosted by Southwest Regional Institute (SwRI) featured an article (archived) about the mountain and also "an almost glass-smooth lake of cooling lava." The story's author referenced "extremely close flybys" of Jupiter as being "within 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the surface" and also noted Io's many volcanoes and the theory that "Jupiter was likely the first planet to form."
A search of SwRI's JunoCam website located an authentic and downloadable set of red, green and blue images — including the raw band images — showing Steeple Mountain. Several creators also shared their slightly enhanced versions of the source images, which rendered the features on Io more clearly.
This picture shows a raw image of Steeple Mountain on Io. (Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS)
The descriptions of some Juno mission images capturing Jupiter and its moons featured the word "enhanced," communicating to users the full context of the pictures' alterations.
"Io's 'Steeple Mountain' (Artist's Concept)." NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 18 Apr. 2024, https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia26294-ios-steeple-mountain-artists-concept/.
"Io's 'Steeple Mountain' (Artist's Concept)." YouTube, JPLraw, 17 Apr. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gajd3mcYnbA.
"Juno - Jupiter Missions." NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/juno/.
"JunoCam Images." NASA Science, https://science.nasa.gov/gallery/junocam-images/.
"JunoCam : Processing." Mission Juno, https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing.
"Malin Space Science Systems." Junocam, Juno Jupiter Orbiter, https://www.msss.com/all_projects/junocam.php.
NASA / SwRI / MSSS. "'Io Image.'" Mission Juno, 30 Dec. 2023, https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing?id=JNCE_2023364_57C00022_V01.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. "Catalog Page for PIA26294." NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Planetary Data System, 18 Apr. 2024, https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26294.
"NASA's Juno Gives Aerial Views of Mountain, Lava Lake on Io." Mission Juno, 19 Apr. 2024, https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/news/nasa-s-juno-gives-aerial-views-of-mountain-lava-lake-on-io.
Saunders, Toby. "What Is the Tallest Mountain in the World? No, It's Not Mount Everest." BBC Science Focus Magazine, 1 July 2023, https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/what-is-the-tallest-mountain-in-the-world.
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