Double Plumes Spotted on Jupiter’s Cantankerous Volcanic Moon

NASA ’s Juno spacecraft enamour young effigy of Jupiter ’s moon Io during its former flyby , coming within an spookily close length of the most volcanically active mankind in the solar system for a second time in less than two months . The close encounter also show what is likely a pair of plumes erupting from the moon ’s control surface .

On Saturday , Juno made the 2nd closest flyby of Io , traveling at a distance of 930 miles ( 1,500 kilometers ) away from the moon . During its tryst , the space vehicle got a clean prospect of Io ’s helter-skelter terrain , revealing some of the hundred of vent and molten silicate lava that plague its surface .

Oh good lord . The volcanoes of Jupiter ’s moon Io , envision by the@NASAJunoprobe during a close flyby.https://t.co/T58rgJEwP3

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/AndreaLuck CC BY

— Corey S. Powell ( @coreyspowell)February 5 , 2024

The rawimagesare made available by NASA , primed and quick for the processing joy of visual designers and outer space enthusiasts on the internet . A closeup view of one of the icon may also give away the eruption of two plumes from Io ’s surface , “ emit either by two vents from one giant volcano , or two vent near each other , ” according to theSouthwest Research Institute . The team behind the Juno mission is still analyse the data gathered by this week ’s flyby to better understand what exactly is bump in the image .

NASA ’s Juno spacecraft , which has been studying the Jovian scheme since 2016 , late turned its attention to Jupiter ’s third big Sun Myung Moon . Juno take note Io during previous flybys in May and July 2023 andcaptured a cozy phratry photo of Jupiter and Ioin September 2023 , let out the gas colossus and its moon side by side .

NASA’s Juno spacecraft carried out a second close flyby of Io on February 3.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft carried out a second close flyby of Io on February 3.Image: NASA/SWRI

On December 30 , theJupiter probe father its first close look at Io , flying at a aloofness of 930 miles ( 1,500 kilometers ) aside from its god-awful surface . This pit the closest flyby of Jupiter ’s moon , not just by Juno but by any ballistic capsule , in 20 age . The closeup images revealed the maimed surface of Io in not bad particular , which gets its signature orange hue from the sulfur erupt from its volcanoes .

As the innermost of Jupiter ’s four Galilean Moon , Io is stuck between the planet ’s immense gravitative force and the gravitational tugboat of its sister moons Europa and Ganymede . This contributes to the moon ’s volcanic activity as Io is constantly being stretched and squeeze due to its billet . The control surface of Io is mutilate by hundreds of volcanoes and lakes of molten silicate lava that appear as burn scarring across its tortured landscape painting .

Scientists are using the yoke of close-fitting flybys to to find oneself out whether Io is harbor a magma ocean underneath its crust , consort to NASA . The Juno scientific discipline squad will contemplate how often the volcanoes on Io erupt , how bright and hot they are , and how the configuration of the lava flow variety . A group of scientists from the Southwest Research Institute , which is locate in San Antonio , Texas , will also study how Io ’s volcanic activity is connected to the flow of charged atom in Jupiter ’s magnetosphere by combining Juno datum withremote observations by the Hubble and Webb space telescopes .

Image: NASA