NASA’s Juno Probe Sends A Fresh Image Of Jupiter’s Moon Io

During its last flyby of the Jovian moon Io, the American Juno spacecraft took a number of pictures of this celestial body – this happened on July 30, when the probe was only 22 thousand km from the satellite.

So close to Io more than 20 years ago – in 2002 it was the Galileo probe. For most satellites and planets of the solar system, this period is negligible, because in a couple of decades they do not undergo significant changes. But not Io, which is constantly changing due to its volcanoes – this moon is considered the most volcanically active body in the solar system. During the last flyby on July 30, 2023, at a distance of 22,000 km from Io, the Juno spacecraft turned on scientific instruments: an infrared mapping device detected thermal signatures of volcanoes and lava flows, and a JunoCam optical camera took pictures of the moon.

The Juno mission launched 12 years ago and orbited Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Initially, the probe studied the largest planet in the solar system, after which it switched to its satellites.