Watch the video from the surface of Jupiter’s moon! – Macelio.gr

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been orbiting the giant planet Jupiter in our solar system for eight years, sending back to Earth impressive data not only about it but also about dozens of its moons.

One of the most important moons studied is Io, which is the closest moon to the planet and is slightly larger than our moon. Io is the most geologically active body in our solar system, with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of volcanoes on its surface that erupt constantly, spewing huge amounts of lava hundreds of kilometers high. Io interacts with Jupiter’s magnetic field and, in addition to glowing material, ejects charged particles trapped in Jupiter’s magnetic field, causing intense auroras.

Juno recently made two flybys of Io, and mission scientists turned data from them into animations that highlight two of the moon’s key features: a mountain and a nearly smooth lake containing lava.

Other recent scientific conclusions from Juno’s missions include updates on Jupiter’s polar cyclones and water abundance.

The new findings were announced a few days ago by Juno’s principal investigator Scott Bolton during a press conference at the General Assembly of the European Geophysical Union in Vienna.

According to NASA, the Juno mission made flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024, getting within about 1,500 kilometers of the surface and taking the first close-up images of the moon.

“Io is full of volcanoes, and we discovered some of them while fighting,” Bolton said.

“We also have some great close-ups and other data of a 200-kilometre-long lava lake called Loki Patera. There are amazing details showing some of the locations that look like stunning islands in the middle of the lake surrounded by hot lava. The specular reflection our instruments have recorded of the lake indicates that parts of The surface of Eos is smooth as glass, reminiscent of obsidian found on Earth.

Maps created using data collected by the Juno mission’s Microwave Radiometry (MWR) instrument reveal that not only is Io’s surface relatively smooth compared to Jupiter’s other moons, but it also has cooler-than-average poles.