2023-10-17 18:52:53
Image of the Jovian moon Io taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft – TED STRYK/SWRI
MADRID, 17 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
NASA’s Juno mission obtained this image of the Jovian moon Io during its scheduled flyby of the planet Jupiter last October 15.
It is the best image of Io since the days of the Galileo orbiter in the 1990s. It shows the most volcanically active world in the solar system with a part of its night side, informa el Southwest Research Institute.
Io’s surface is marked by hundreds of volcanoes that periodically erupt with molten lava and sulfurous gases.
Io is a little larger than the Earth’s satellite, and not only does it suffer the gravitational force of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, but also of the moons Europa and Ganymede, so its orbit around the gaseous planet is elliptical. Its continuous volcanic activity is also related to the gravitational struggle of the moon with the planet and the other satellites.
The Juno mission was launched in 2011 and reached Jupiter’s orbit in 2016. Since then it has made 55 flybys of the gas giant to study the planet’s atmosphere, its origin, structure and evolution within the solar system, and thus better understand its formation. . The flybys also allow detailed study of Jupiter’s major moons.
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