Photo by Jason Major on Flickr.com
The Juno spacecraft, which NASA sent into the orbit of Jupiter 11 years ago, is heading towards the planet’s third largest moon, Io.
It is the Solar System’s most volcanically active moon. There are volcanoes on the satellite that constantly spew gas and lava. Juno took stunning photos of Io’s lava-covered surface from a distance of 80,000 kilometers away.
The spacecraft is scheduled to approach Io at 1,500 kilometers next year. The last similar images of the 3,600-kilometer-wide satellite were taken more than 20 years ago.
Speaking to the BBC, the head of the Juno research team, Prof. “Besides trying to understand and map volcanoes and lava flows, we have a number of other goals,” said Scott Bolton.
IT ALSO OBSERVED OTHER SATELLITES
NASA’s spacecraft Juno is advancing to Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io
Bolton said, “We will also look at the gravitational field and try to understand the internal structure of Io.” “We want to see whether the magma that created all these volcanoes forms a global ocean or whether they are independent structures.”
Now, in a sense, it’s a fun time for the Juno mission. Because Juno’s mission to Jupiter was to investigate the planet’s origins and evolution,
