Our solar system has a moon full of lava-spewing volcanoes, and NASA spacecraft are approaching this intense world.
The pioneering Juno spacecraft, which arrived at Jupiter in 2016, recently imaged Jupiter’s moon Io from about 32,044 miles (51,570 kilometers) away. The March 1 image is Juno’s “best image ever of Io’s colorful surface,” said Jason Perry, a professional imager who uploaded the new photos to NASA’s Juno website. pointed out online.(opens in new tab)The image will allow planetary scientists and the public to locate surface features and volcanoes on Io, the most volcanically active world in the solar system.
In 2023, Io’s views will become clearer and more interesting. Juno will loop around Jupiter and move closer and closer to Io as it approaches the dynamic lunar orbit.By the end of the year, the spacecraft will pass just 930 miles, or 1,500 kilometers from Io. (For reference, the Moon is about 240,000 miles from Earth.)
“We’re getting closer and closer,” Scott Bolton, JunoMission’s lead investigator, told Mashable.
A cool space movie show where a speeding object crashes into Jupiter and explodes
“It’s a really tortured moon,” said Bolton, who works at the Southwest Research Institute, a research agency often affiliated with NASA. “It’s just this beautiful place.”
“It’s just this beautiful place.”
Io is tortured as it is caught in a relentless “tug-of-war” between giant Jupiter and Jupiter’s two other large moons, Ganymede and Europa. This powerful push and pull creates serious heat inside a world slightly larger than the Moon. All this heat tries to reach the surface, resulting in lava and extreme volcanic activity. A world swimming in lava is highly unlikely to host the conditions for even the most difficult life forms to evolve. ), it could potentially contain favorable conditions for life to evolve underground.
These latest images of Io were taken during Juno’s 49th orbit around Jupiter.
A montage of Jupiter’s moon Io taken on March 1, 2023.
Credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Jason Perry (CC BY 3.0)
NASA’s pioneering Juno spacecraft recently captured this image of the volcanic moon Io about 51,570 kilometers (32,044 miles) away.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill (CC by 3.0)
Scientists like Bolton use these images to identify new volcanoes, among other things.The dark spots are often where eruptions occurred, and other recent NASA images of him(opens in new tab) It shows that this volcanic activity continues uninterruptedly. The pressing question is whether a global ocean of magma is seeping into Io’s interior, or whether there are just giant pockets of molten rock.
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As the Juno spacecraft approaches Io, it will be turned by the moon’s orbit as shown in the image below, rather than approaching the moon directly. With each orbit, Juno takes pictures at closest approach before orbiting the gas giant Jupiter again. By the end of December 2023, Juno’s orbit (PJ 58) will be within about 930 miles of Io. It’s a long-awaited event.
The Juno spacecraft orbits Jupiter’s fascinating moons.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI
Repeatedly fast-moving around Jupiter is no simple task for an unmanned spacecraft. Radiation levels around the planet are high because particles energized by Jupiter’s enormous magnetic field are trapped. As such, the spacecraft’s critical electronics are housed in rugged “radiation vaults.” Now in his eighth year of operation, let’s hope the robot continues to explore Jupiter’s fascinating moons hundreds of millions of miles from Earth.
“This is an armored tank,” said Bolton. “And the shield holds.”
