NASA’s Juno probe is preparing to explore the giant planet’s third main moon, the mysterious volcanic moon Io, after exploring Jupiter’s moons Ganymede and Europa. Juno, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, received orders from NASA control teams to take pictures of Io, It is the most volcanically active body in the entire solar system.
Io, which is roughly the size of Earth’s moon, will remain at Juno’s focus for the next year and a half as the probe makes a total of nine flybys of the moon’s surface, two of which will take the probe within 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the moon.
According to the “Space” website, NASA said in a statement that the flight will enable scientists to carry out the first high-resolution observation campaign of the magma-enveloped moon, study Io’s volcanoes and how volcanic eruptions interact with the powerful magnetosphere of Jupiter’s aurora.
Juno has caught a glimpse of Io before. In June 2022, the probe passed the moon at a distance of about 50,000 miles (80,000 km).
Io is very different from the ice-covered moons of Ganymede and Europa, which are believed to hide oceans of water beneath their frozen surfaces that scientists believe could harbor primitive forms of life.
On the contrary, the surface of Io is covered with lava lakes emanating from hundreds of volcanoes scattered on the moon’s surface.
Some lava springs erupt at altitudes of dozens of miles or kilometers, according to NASA. Although Io is unlikely to host life, unlike Ganymede and Europa, scientists are still eager to get a detailed glimpse of this moon.
“The team is really excited that Juno’s expanded mission includes studying Jupiter’s moons,” Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio said in the release. “With each close flyby, we’ve been able to obtain a wealth of new information.”