NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Delivered A Spectacular Aerial View From Io, Including Mountains And A Lava Lake
Image credits: NASA
Scientists overwhelmed the entire world when, on the 16th of April, they announced new animations and photos based on transformed data collected during two recent flybys of NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter.
The Juno spacecraft made extremely close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024, getting as close as 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) from the surface and obtaining the first close-up images of the moon’s surface. The new images show a detailed view of Loki Patera, a 127-mile-long (200 km) lava lake, which scientists have been observing for decades.
“Io is simply littered with volcanoes, and we caught a few of them in action. We also got some great close-ups and other data on a 200-kilometer-long lava lake called Loki Patera. There is amazing detail showing these crazy islands embedded in the middle of a potential magma lake rimmed with hot lava. The specular reflection our instruments recorded of the lake suggests parts of Io’s surface are as smooth as glass, reminiscent of volcanically created obsidian glass on Earth,” Juno’s principal investigator Scott Bolton shared the excitement. “There is amazing detail showing these crazy islands embedded in the middle of a potentially magma lake rimmed with hot lava,” he added.
Scientists overwhelmed the entire world when, on the 16th of April, they announced new animations and photos based on transformed data collected during two recent flybys of NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter.
The Juno spacecraft made extremely close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024, getting as close as 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) from the surface and obtaining the first close-up images of the moon’s surface. The new images show a detailed view of Loki Patera, a 127-mile-long (200 km) lava lake, which scientists have been observing for decades.
“Io is simply littered with volcanoes, and we caught a few of them in action. We also got some great close-ups and other data on a 200-kilometer-long lava lake called Loki Patera. There is amazing detail showing these crazy islands embedded in the middle of a potential magma lake rimmed with hot lava. The specular reflection our instruments recorded of the lake suggests parts of Io’s surface are as smooth as glass, reminiscent of volcanically created obsidian glass on Earth,” Juno’s principal investigator Scott Bolton shared the excitement. “There is amazing detail showing these crazy islands embedded in the middle of a potentially magma lake rimmed with hot lava,” he added.
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26 May 2024
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