NASA’s Juno spacecraft will fly previous Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io on Tuesday, Might 16, after which the fuel large itself quickly after. The flyby of the Jovian moon would be the closest thus far, at an altitude of about 22,060 miles (35,500 kilometers). Now within the third yr of its prolonged mission to analyze the inside of Jupiter, the solar-powered spacecraft will even discover the ring system the place a number of the fuel large’s internal moons reside.
Up to now, Juno has carried out 50 flybys of Jupiter and in addition collected knowledge throughout shut encounters with three of the 4 Galilean moons – the icy worlds Europa and Ganymede, and fiery Io.
“Io is probably the most volcanic celestial physique that we all know of in our photo voltaic system,” stated Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Analysis Institute in San Antonio. “By observing it over time on a number of passes, we will watch how the volcanoes fluctuate – how usually they erupt, how brilliant and sizzling they’re, whether or not they’re linked to a bunch or solo, and if the form of the lava stream modifications.”
