NASA’s Juno flyby provides an extraordinary view of Jupiter moon Io’s surface

NASA’s Juno spacecraft was designed to explore the wonders of the giant planet Jupiter. Over the years, the spacecraft has given us some interesting facts about the planet and its moons and now it captured a mesmarizing image of Jupiter’s fourth moon called Io during a flyby. The image showed traces of massive volcanic activities and lava-like surfaces.

Juno’s capabilities have reached so far that NASA expanded that mission and now the spacecraft is contributing towards various discoveries about the Jovian system. Now, with Io’s image, scientists will be able to extract more information about this intriguing Jupiter moon.

About images of Jupiter’s moon Io

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captures the closest images of the moon Io. According to a Space.com report, the moon’s surface is filled with numerous volcanoes and pools of silicate lava. However, the moon is known to be an active volcanic moon in the solar system. Lava erupts from it and it even spews sulfurous gas which reaches the moon’s atmosphere and it can even be seen from Earth with the help of a telescope.

To collect the images, the JunoCam instrument was used during the flyby which created a time-lapse video of the volcanic moon. It enabled the spacecraft to capture the moon from various angles. The Juno spacecraft will conduct more studies about the volcanic moon and its next flyby is scheduled for December 30, Gizmodo reports.

About NASA’s Juno spacecraft

According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, The Juno spacecraft was launched on August 5, 2011, towards the trajectory of Jupiter. After travelling 1740 million miles over five years, Juno arrived at Jupiter on July 4, 2016, beginning its mission to study the planet. During its 35-orbit journey, the spacecraft provided more than three terabits of scientific information and amazing captures of the planet. Juno spacecraft will continue its study till 2025 or till it can stay active. The extension NASA mission will explore the Jovian system and will focus on Jupiter’s mysterious Moon, Europa and Io.