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What it is : Io , a moon of Jupiter and thesolar system ’s most volcanic world
When it was have : Dec. 30 , 2023
Io, as seen by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on Dec. 30, 2023.
Why it ’s so special : NASA ’s Juno ballistic capsule has captured the closest panorama of Io since NASA’sGalileo ballistic capsule see the volcanic worldin 2001 . choke within just 930 miles ( 1,500 kilometer ) of Io , the spacecraft snap six images of the moon ’s pockmark surface . This image also shows touchy " Jupiter shine " — sun speculate from Jupiter ’s clouds onto the surface of Io .
Io is the most volcanic mankind in thesolar system ; its surface is peppered with hundreds of volcanoes , some spewing sulfurous plumes hundreds of nautical mile mellow , according to Live Science ’s babe siteSpace.com . That ’s a result of Io ’s proximity to Jupiter , which the moon orbit every 42 hour . This law of proximity bring out friction , as does Io ’s gravitative interaction with Jupiter ’s elephantine moons Ganymede , Europa and Callisto . The gravitative tugboat - of - state of war likely results in a turbulent ocean of magma under Io ’s stony control surface , leading to volcanic eruption that are decree of magnitude more muscular than those on Earth .
Planetary scientist desire the images will shed light on how Io ’s volcano vary , including how often they take fire , how bright and hot they are , and how Io ’s activity is connected to the stream of charge particles in Jupiter ’s magnetosphere .
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This is the first of two very close flybys of Io . The next one is scheduled for Feb. 3 , when Juno will once again get within 930 air mile of the volcanic lunar month .
However , there ’s a chance that Juno ’s mental imagery system , JunoCam , wo n’t last long enough . Seriously degraded by radioactivity after 56 flybys of Jupiter since Juno arrived in 2016 , JunoCam was seriously impaired after its most late orbit of Jupiter in November , according toNASA . In December , engineers used Juno ’s built - in warmer to restitute the camera , but it ’s nameless how long this process , called annealing , will work out . Juno is due to be deorbited into Jupiter in September 2025 .
