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Interior of Io

Dec. 18, 1997
Cutaway view of the possible internal structure of Io. The surface of the satellite is a mosaic of images obtained in 1979 by NASA's Voyager spacecraft.

Cutaway view of the possible internal structure of Io The surface of the satellite is a mosaic of images obtained in 1979 by NASA's Voyager spacecraft The interior characteristics are inferred from gravity field and magnetic field measurements by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Io's radius is 1821 km, similar to the 1738 km radius of our Moon; Io has a metallic (iron, nickel) core (shown in gray) drawn to the correct relative size. The core is surrounded by a rock shell (shown in brown). Io's rock or silicate shell extends to the surface.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.

This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo.

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