The most volcanically active place in our solar system is one of Jupiter's 67-ish moons, Io. Its insides are incessantly pulled apart, ravaged, and heated by the mighty gravitational pulls of both Jupiter and its moons. Using a powerful telescope, scientists spotted an 8,300 square mile lake (bright yellow dot in the center-ish) on Io's surface – that's larger than Lake Ontario. Also, you'll notice that another of Jupiter's famous moons, Europa, makes an epic, if not slightly rude, photobomb.

Chile's Atacama Desert contains Earth's closest Mars-like conditions: It's extremely dry with high UV radiation from the sun. So naturally, NASA has made the area it's go-to practice facility for tests and experiments that they may one day perform on the red planet. Recently, scientists from NASA's Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies completed their second season of tests. The tested KREX-2 rover was able to rove, drill, and detect life signs all at the same time. Such multi-tasking robotic rovers could ultimately help scientists to figure out if there was (or still is) microbial life forms under Mars' surface.

The United States Geological Society captured gorgeous images of the'lava faucet' currently spewing out of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano. It's been erupting since 1983, but on New Year's day, the lava caused a rock structure to collapse, exposing the flowing lava. Researchers are now concerned that the surrounding cliff might collapse as well, making the area even more dangerous than it already is.

This loggerhead turtle is sporting a high-tech GPS tracking device that lets scientists track its foraging and nesting habits. The ongoing project has allowed scientists to find better ways to protect the species. But it also has helped reveal something interesting about the animals: they always, always travel to their birthplace to lay their eggs. One loggerhead traveled 100 miles just to get back home.

The cerebral cortex of the brain is a mysterious place. Until now, neuroscientists have relied on a map that broke the brain's cerebral cortex up into 80 different sections in each hemisphere. But in a paper released this past week in Nature, researchers released a brand new and updated map of the brain, including 100 new regions in each hemisphere. To create the new map, researchers combined three different imaging techniques as well as a machine learning system. As seen above, the different colors represent what sensory input that area is connected to: Red for hearing, green for touch, and blue for vision.

Robots could be performing surgeries on humans in the not so distant future. Researchers at The Children's National Medical Center created a machine called the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot, or STAR, a lightweight robotic surgical tool. They tested it out by having it suture together a live pig's intestines. Interestingly, the robot actually did better than its human counterparts. Your jobs are still safe.