NASA has shared a breathtaking image of Jupiter’s Moon Io which actually shows lava flows and lava lakes as bright red spots.
Did you know, Jupiter’s rocky moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system, with hundreds of volcanoes? NASA has shared a spooky image captured by the Juno spacecraft image of Jupiter’s moon Io from 50000 miles away. The image shows the shapes of lava flows and lava lakes as bright red spots. “You can see volcanic hotspots. We’ve been able to monitor over the course of the primary mission – over 30 orbits – how this changes and evolves,” ScienceAlert report quoted Scott Bolton, the principal investigator for NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
NASA has revealed that during flybys, the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) of Juno added a third dimension to the mission. It provided an amazing view beneath the water-ice crust of Ganymede and Europa. It helped to obtain data on its structure, purity, and temperature as deep as about 15 miles below the surface.
Back in June 2021, Juno’s Magnetic Field (MAG) and Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instruments during the close approach to Ganymede showed evidence of breaking and reforming of magnetic field connections between Jupiter and Ganymede. Meanwhile, Juno’s ultraviolet spectrograph has been observing similar events to the moon’s ultraviolet auroral emissions.
However, now the Juno team’s main attention for the next year-and-a-half will primarily be on Jupiter’s moon Io. However, Juno is expected to complete nine flybys of the Jovian moon to observe how volcanoes interact with Jupiter’s aurorae and magnetosphere. Two of these flybys are set to from just 930 miles away. Beginning on December 15, 2022, NASA’s Juno mission is scheduled to obtain images of Jupiter’s moon Io as part of the extended mission to investigate the interior of Jupiter.
These flybys by Juno spacecraft will be the first high-resolution monitoring campaign on the magma-encrusted Io moon to find out how volcanic eruptions interact with Jupiter’s powerful magnetosphere and create auroras.
NASA has shared a breathtaking image of Jupiter’s Moon Io which actually shows lava flows and lava lakes as bright red spots.
Did you know, Jupiter’s rocky moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system, with hundreds of volcanoes? NASA has shared a spooky image captured by the Juno spacecraft image of Jupiter’s moon Io from 50000 miles away. The image shows the shapes of lava flows and lava lakes as bright red spots. “You can see volcanic hotspots. We’ve been able to monitor over the course of the primary mission – over 30 orbits – how this changes and evolves,” ScienceAlert report quoted Scott Bolton, the principal investigator for NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
NASA has revealed that during flybys, the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) of Juno added a third dimension to the mission. It provided an amazing view beneath the water-ice crust of Ganymede and Europa. It helped to obtain data on its structure, purity, and temperature as deep as about 15 miles below the surface.
Back in June 2021, Juno’s Magnetic Field (MAG) and Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instruments during the close approach to Ganymede showed evidence of breaking and reforming of magnetic field connections between Jupiter and Ganymede. Meanwhile, Juno’s ultraviolet spectrograph has been observing similar events to the moon’s ultraviolet auroral emissions.
However, now the Juno team’s main attention for the next year-and-a-half will primarily be on Jupiter’s moon Io. However, Juno is expected to complete nine flybys of the Jovian moon to observe how volcanoes interact with Jupiter’s aurorae and magnetosphere. Two of these flybys are set to from just 930 miles away. Beginning on December 15, 2022, NASA’s Juno mission is scheduled to obtain images of Jupiter’s moon Io as part of the extended mission to investigate the interior of Jupiter.
These flybys by Juno spacecraft will be the first high-resolution monitoring campaign on the magma-encrusted Io moon to find out how volcanic eruptions interact with Jupiter’s powerful magnetosphere and create auroras.