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Description
Although this is a rather simple composition, I thought the night-side of Io would be a neat scene to depict for this piece. “Ionian Nights” shows the night-side of Io and reveals the true scale of the moons intense volcanism and aurora. The idea for this came when I saw what is (I think) the only image of Io’s spectacular aurora acquired by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on May 31, 1998. See:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Io_…

Io’s aurora is caused by the moon plowing through Jupiter’s intense magnetic field. Energetic particles trapped by Jupiter’s magnetosphere interact with Io’s thin atmosphere of sulfur dioxide causing the molecules to glow brightly in various colors. Io cuts through Jupiter’s strong magnetic field at 17 km/s setting up a dynamo which leads to the formation of 400,000 volts across the moon’s diameter. A continuous electric current of 3 million amps flows from Io down Jupiter’s field lines until it hits the planet's atmosphere near its poles.

I made this scene entirely in Photoshop. The texture for Jupiter came from JHT’s Planetary Pixel Emporium at: planetpixelemporium.com/jupite…

The texture for Io came from John van Vliet at the Celestial Motherload:
www.celestiamotherlode.net/cat…

Description
Although this is a rather simple composition, I thought the night-side of Io would be a neat scene to depict for this piece. “Ionian Nights” shows the night-side of Io and reveals the true scale of the moons intense volcanism and aurora. The idea for this came when I saw what is (I think) the only image of Io’s spectacular aurora acquired by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on May 31, 1998. See:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Io_…

Io’s aurora is caused by the moon plowing through Jupiter’s intense magnetic field. Energetic particles trapped by Jupiter’s magnetosphere interact with Io’s thin atmosphere of sulfur dioxide causing the molecules to glow brightly in various colors. Io cuts through Jupiter’s strong magnetic field at 17 km/s setting up a dynamo which leads to the formation of 400,000 volts across the moon’s diameter. A continuous electric current of 3 million amps flows from Io down Jupiter’s field lines until it hits the planet's atmosphere near its poles.

I made this scene entirely in Photoshop. The texture for Jupiter came from JHT’s Planetary Pixel Emporium at: planetpixelemporium.com/jupite…

The texture for Io came from John van Vliet at the Celestial Motherload:
www.celestiamotherlode.net/cat…