By Ron Cowen
Headed for a 2004 rendezvous with Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft is flying past Jupiter. As it picks up a gravitational boost from the giant planet, the NASA-European Space Agency spacecraft is taking the opportunity to explore the behemoth’s harsh environment of energetic charged particles, strong magnetic fields, and ionizing radiation.
The craft’s ultraviolet camera has now recorded the most detailed images ever taken of a doughnut-shape ring of charged particles surrounding Jupiter. Known as the Io torus, the ring is fueled by neutral oxygen and sulfur atoms spewed by volcanoes on Io, one of the planet’s largest moons. Radiation striking the atoms turns them into ions.