NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured a rocket infrared image From JupiterMe, 50,000 miles (80,000 km) away.
In the image taken on July 5 and released on Wednesday, the shape of the lava flow and lava lake can be seen as bright red dots.
“You can see the volcanic fires. We can observe the trajectory of the main mission – more than 30 orbits – as it changes and evolves.” Scott Boltonprincipal investigator on NASA’s Juno spacecraft, he said at an American Geophysical Union press event Autumn meeting Wednesday.
Io is home to hundreds of volcanoes. discovered by NASA. Surprisingly, Bolton says, scientists are finding more volcanic hotspots in the polar regions than in the planet’s equatorial regions.
The Juno spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016. After studying the gas giant, Juno will fly by Jupiter’s moon Ganymede in 2021 and beyond. Europe earlier this year.
The spacecraft Io is scheduled to explore NASA He said it was “the most volcanic place in the solar system,” Dec. 15. This is the first of nine flights Juno is planning for the next year and a half.
Scientists hope to collect more data on moonVolcanoes and their attractions – which ones Play a tug of war to form Jupiter’s Northern Lights – They fly.
“When we see volcanoes change and become active and less active, they are driving Jupiter’s giant magnetosphere,” Bolton said on Wednesday.
The Northern Lights are a colorful display of light that is not unique to Earth. Jupiter has the brightest aurora borealis in the solar system, according to NASA.
On both Earth and Jupiter, auroras occur when charged particles, such as protons or electrons, interact with the magnetic field — known as the magnetosphere — that surrounds the planet. Jupiter’s magnetic field is approx 20,000 times stronger from the earth.
The data and insights Juno gathers can help inform future missions to study Jupiter’s moons, such as I put Clipper NASAwho will investigate whether Europe can sustain life.
This article was originally published by Interested business.
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