NASA’s Juno spacecraft set for historic encounter with Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io; check date
[ad_1]
Prepare for a celestial spectacle as NASA's Juno spacecraft gears up for an unprecedented rendezvous with Jupiter's fiery moon, Io, on Saturday, December 30. This close encounter, at a mere 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) from Io's tumultuous surface, marks the closest any spacecraft has ventured to the moon in over two decades, promising a deluge of groundbreaking data.Leading the scientific charge is Juno's principal investigator, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, who anticipates a wealth of insights into Io's volcanic dynamics. "By combining data from this flyby with our previous observations, the Juno science team is studying how Io's volcanoes vary," Bolton explains. The team aims to unravel the mysteries of Io's eruptions- how often they o...