NASA's Juno Delivers Sharper Images of Io

NASA's spacecraft Juno sent new images of Jupiter's tortured moon, Io, from its latest flyby last July 30.

Juno's Closest Approach to Io

The latest flyby of Juno last July is now the closest approach made by the spacecraft on Io, closing within 13,700 miles of it. Prior to the flyby, NASA was already expecting to harvest new information about the "volcano-festooned moon."

Juno launched last 2011 marking its 12th year on the mission. The spacecraft arrived at Jupiter around 2016 with a goal to understand the history and evolution of the planet. Since then Juno has been providing NASA various information that helps in deepening the understanding to the planet.

All thanks to Juno, NASA was able to spot a volcanic plume which is suspected to be from a continually erupting volcano, Prometheus or the "Old Faithful of Io."

IO's Mystery

Io, along with other big moons, orbits Jupiter every 42 hours which results to tidal heating. Moreover, Io is suspected to be the home of ocean magma underneath its surface area.

As of now, NASA is not giving prioritization to launch an Io mission. This means that Juno's observation will be the only source of close views for the next decade.

According to NASA, Juno will be closest to Io on December 30, 2023 and February 3, 2024 with a distance of 900 miles of IO's surface.