It looks like a perfectly sphered space potato.
this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
111 points (98.3% liked)
Astronomy
6065 readers
60 users here now
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
That petri dish is going to need a thorough cleaning.
That's no moon, it's a ~~space station~~ spherical potato
This seems to be the source:
https://science.nasa.gov/photojournal/global-image-of-io-true-color/
Thanks! My opinion is that images from NASA, ESA etc should always link to the source. They always include interesting information about what is in the image. It is also nice if I don't need to search the database for ages.
Yeah... I kind of wish it was a request of the channel. I've found a few of the sources now and it's mostly on this channel people seem to post other people's images with no references
I guess OP found this in yesterday's 'Astronomy Picture of the Day', which includes the link you sent. Would've cost a second to include it in the post.
I wonder what we can do to help motivate including links to sources
I messaged the moderator asking if we could update the channel description but haven't heard back
Not true color. This is an "enhanced" photo.
Indeed.
This color mosaic uses the near-infrared, green and violet filters (slightly more than the visible range) of the spacecraft's camera and approximates what the human eye would see.
It world also appear much darker.
I didn't think about that. It almost looks metallic, or like the shading you see with 3d modelling software
The source claims that enhanced is this one: https://science.nasa.gov/photojournal/global-image-of-io-false-color/
man io is my favorite I love it