NASA is closer.
The space agency’s Juno spacecraft, orbiting Jupiter hundreds of millions of miles away, has swooped ever closer to the Jovian moon Io – the most volcanically active moon in our solar system. Juno recently made its 55th trip around Jupiter, coming within just about 7,270 miles (11,700 kilometers) of Io’s surface, which in space terms means almost passing it (7,270 miles is three times closer than some major US weather satellites) .
NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured these images on October 15 and sent them back to Earth the next day. These displays are processed (removing noise and distortion, etc.) by professional and amateur image processors, some of whom work for NASA or related space research programs.
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The following images are some of the clearest views of Io ever taken: you can see dark patches (suggesting lava flows), volcano-like topography rising from the moon’s surface, and what may be volcanic plumes blowing into space .
And the spacecraft will fly even closer, passing nearby Io in December and again in January 2024.
“We’re moving closer and closer,” Scott Bolton, principal investigator of the Juno mission, told Mashable earlier this year.
Jupiter’s moon Io, seen up close on October 15, 2023.
Kredit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill / CC BY 3.0
Io, on the left, and a partial view of the gas giant Jupiter, on the right.
Kredit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill / CC BY 3.0
The bottom of this image of Io shows what may be a volcanic plume.
Kredit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Brian Swift / CC BY 3.0
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Io is covered in erupting volcanoes as it is constantly caught in the tug-of-war between nearby objects. “Not only is the largest planet in the solar system always pulling on it gravitationally, but so are Io’s Galilean siblings – Europa and the largest moon in the solar system, Ganymede,” explained NASA in a statement. “The result is that Io is constantly being stretched and squeezed, an action associated with the creation of the lava seen erupting from many volcanoes.”
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Io, although interesting, is certainly not a suitable place for life to exist. But other nearby moons probably do too.
“We are moving closer.”
In the coming years, we will learn more about the moon Europa, which planetary scientists say has a salty ocean beneath its thick icy shell. “Europe may be the most promising place in our solar system to find an environment currently suitable for some forms of life beyond Earth,” explains NASA. In 2024, NASA will launch the highly anticipated Europa Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter, where it will make repeated approaches to the moon.
NASA’s Europa Clipper will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter’s moon Europa and investigate whether the icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life, the space agency said.
2023-10-18 11:20:26
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