Juno Mission Reveals Stunning View of Jupiter’s Moon Io
NASA’s Juno spacecraft recently completed its closest flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io, revealing the volcanic world in unprecedented detail. The spacecraft, which has been exploring the Jovian system since 2016, flew at a distance of 930 miles from Io’s surface, marking the closest encounter by any spacecraft in the past 20 years.
During the flyby, Juno captured intimate views of Io using all three of its onboard cameras. NASA released six images of the moon Io on Sunday, showcasing its mutilated surface, which is mangled by hundreds of volcanoes and lakes of molten silicate lava.
As the most volcanically active body in the solar system, Io’s surface appears as burnt scarring across its tortured landscape. The moon’s position between Jupiter’s immense gravitational force and the gravitational tug of its sister moons contributes to its volcanic activity, as Io is constantly being stretched and squeezed.
The Juno mission team is investigating the source of Io’s volcanic activity and hoping to find out whether it is harboring a magma ocean underneath its crust. They will study how often the volcanoes on Io erupt, how bright and hot they are, and how the shape of the lava flow changes.
Io is also the main source of most of the charged particles in Jupiter’s magnetosphere, creating a donut-shaped cloud of ions and electrons that surround the planet. Scientists will study how Io’s volcanic activity is connected to the flow of charged particles in Jupiter’s magnetosphere by combining Juno data with remote observations by the Hubble and Webb space telescopes.
Juno’s recent flyby of Io marked the spacecraft’s 57th orbit of the Jovian system, enduring years of radiation from the gas giant’s environment. The spacecraft is scheduled for a second close flyby of Io on February 3, during which it will come within a distance of 930 miles from the moon’s surface.
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