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By Jesse O’Neill
Published
Feb. 7, 2024, 4:57 p.m. ET
NASA’s Juno mission recently approached within 930 miles of lo, Jupiter’s volcanic third largest moon, and captured remarkable images of the most volcanic world within our solar system.
Juno, now in its third year of documenting the immense planet and its up-to-95 officially recognized moons, photographed active volcanoes emitting large plumes of debris into its thin sulfur dioxide atmosphere.
The captivating images of the heavily cratered moon, along with its hundreds of volcanoes and lava lakes, can be viewed in a gallery published in Sky & Telescope.
In December, the spacecraft had a similar close encounter with the innermost Galilean moon. During its 58th orbit around Jupiter, it captured the first-ever images of lo’s north and south poles, as reported by NASA.
Juno, the first solar-powered mission in the outer solar system, is expected to pass by lo another seven times from greater distances before completing its mission. The mission’s primary objectives included monitoring Jupiter’s magnetic field and interior from a distance before moving in closer to the gas giant.
The spacecraft was set to pass near lo seven more times from further distances before the mission ends. This mission included monitoring Jupiter’s magnetic field and interior before recently moving closer to the gas giant.
Lava fountains from lo’s surface can spew volcanic material dozens of miles into the air. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/AndreaLuck
“Lava fountains from lo’s surface can expel volcanic material dozens of miles into the air,” says NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/AndreaLuck
“Combining data from this flyby with our previous observations, the Juno science team is studying how Io’s volcanoes vary,” stated Juno’s Principal Investigator, Scott Bolton, from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, in a NASA press release last month.
Bolton added, “We are studying how often they erupt, how bright and hot they are, 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.”
Juno’s latest flyby also provided insight into the “importance of tidal forces from Jupiter, which are relentlessly squeezing this tortured moon,” Bolton said.
Juno’s JunoCam experienced radiation exposure during its last close pass of the planet, prompting engineers to use internal heaters on the camera to warm it up.
Juno’s latest close encounter also provided insight into “the importance of tidal forces from Jupiter, which are relentlessly squeezing this tortured moon,” said Bolton.
In this JunoCam shot from October, a plume over the location of the volcano Prometheus is visible just standing out from the darkness on the left side of the image, just below the terminator (the line dividing day and night). NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
lo is slightly larger than Earth’s moon and has surface temperatures of negative 202 degrees. However, its interior is warmed by the tidal forces of Jupiter’s massive gravitational field, fueling volcanoes that can exceed 3,000 degrees, according to Space.com.
The volcanoes on Io expel charged particles into a region of higher concentration of ions and electrons located at Io’s orbit, known as the Io plasma torus, which connects back to the planet through magnetic field lines.
The celestial body orbits Jupiter in less than two Earth days but does not rotate, as it is tidally locked to the planet.
While Juno’s latest pass gave an impressive view of lo, it was not the closest a spacecraft has ever been to the moon. The Galileo mission reportedly got within 112 miles of lo in 2001.
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