Jupiter’s Fiery Moon, Io, Unleashes Spectacular Volcanic Fury Captured By NASA
Jupiter is host to many moons, somewhere in the ballpark of 80 to 95 by NASA’s estimates. One in particular, Io, has caught the attention of researchers for its highly volatile nature: it is dotted with volcanoes—and not just with dormant ones, but very active ones that have just been caught on camera during an eruption.
Its mass amount of volcanoes is thanks to its position between Jupiter and two other giant moons, Ganymede and Europa. The gravitational push and pull between these galactic bodies has caused heat to generate within Io—which is only a little larger than our own Moon. And with such great heat, it has to escape somewhere, and hence lava and volcanoes have since flooded its surface.
Juno took the images on its 51st journey around Jupiter; it came within 22,060 miles of the moon, and snapped a few shots of some of its planetary wonders at work. Juno is not explicitly set to head directly for Io, but it does plan on passing by it to take a sneak peek into its hot volcanic wonder.
The renders were processed by a citizen scientist and professional image processors to give us a clearer look at the inner workings of Io’s treacherous terrain.
In a statement, Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator, mentioned that Io is one of our known solar system’s most volcanic celestial bodies. “By observing it over time on multiple passes, we can watch how the volcanoes vary—how often they erupt, how bright and hot they are, whether they are linked to a group or solo, and if the shape of the lava flow changes.”
Juno is set to get closer to Io by the year’s end, hopefully resulting in an even better look into this fiery world.
Oh hello, Io! During its 51st close flyby of Jupiter on May 16, our #JunoMission captured these views of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io.
— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) May 18, 2023
More about Juno's exploration of Io: https://t.co/QhqQNP8Cgy
Other recent images: https://t.co/Ql7aCQvRqY
📸 processed by Kevin M. Gill pic.twitter.com/QS4eWfzIi3
