ANTARIKSA — Towards the end of 2023, NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully reached the moon Io which orbits Jupiter. The closest approach to the volcanic moon occurred during Juno’s 57th flyby of Jupiter.
Passing about 1,500 kilometers from Io, the most volcanic body in the solar system, on Saturday, December 30 2023, Juno was able to capture images of the Jovian moon in great detail. Previously, only one spacecraft had approached Io, namely in 2001. At that time, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft passed 181 kilometers above Io’s south pole.
Juno, which was launched on August 5, 2011, and reached Jupiter and its moon system on July 4, 2016 (after a journey of 2.8 billion kilometers), photographed six views of Io to end the year 2023. Some are in black and white frames, some in color .
The purpose of the short trail is not just to take pictures. Juno’s job is to collect important data about Io and its volcanism.
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“By combining data from this flyby with our previous observations, the Juno science team is studying how Io’s volcanoes vary,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator and scientist at the Southwest Research Institute.
Bolton explained that they were looking for everything related to the volcano. Like how often the volcano there erupts, how bright and hot it is when it does. Then, how the shape of the lava flow changes, and how Io’s activity is connected to the flow of charged particles in Jupiter’s magnetosphere.
NASA shared some incredible images of Io on its X account (Twitter) with a little caption: “The JunoCam instrument on our #JunoMission acquired six images of Jupiter’s moon Io during today’s close encounter. This black-and-white view was taken at an altitude of about 1,500 miles (2,500 kilometers).”
Volcanic point on Io’s surface. Image: NASA
Io gets its status as the most volcanic body in the solar system because of Jupiter’s immense gravity. Jupiter itself is the most massive planet in the solar system. Io is also influenced by the gravity of other large Jovian (Jupiter system) moons, such as Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
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Together, the Jovian moons and Jupiter pull and push Io, producing enormous tidal forces. This causes Io’s surface to bend strongly enough so that it can rise and fall as extreme as 100 meters.
As a result, the surface of Io, which is roughly the same size as our moon on Earth, is covered in hundreds of active volcanoes that spew lava tens of kilometers above Io. Some of the particles escape Io’s thin, dry atmosphere and are trapped by Jupiter’s magnetic field. The lava material then forms a torus of hot plasma around Jupiter.
That’s just one way Io’s volcanism could impact the entire Jovian system. Because of this, the data Juno collects is extremely valuable for planetary scientists.
2024-01-03 11:28:00
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