On December 30, 2023, the Jupiter probe Juno completed the closest flyby of Io, the most volcanic object in the solar system, to date, capturing stunningly detailed images and providing valuable data for scientists.
The photos taken during the flyby revealed that Io shimmers with a sulfur hue, and its surface features are mottled due to continuous volcanic activity. The close encounter with Juno marked the closest any mission has come to Io in the past 20 years, with the spacecraft swooping down to just 1,500 kilometers from Io’s surface.
The new images collected important data on Io’s volcanic activity, allowing scientists to further understand the eruption frequency, brightness, and temperature of Io’s volcanoes, as well as the changes in the shape of lava flows and their relationship with the flow of charged particles in Jupiter’s magnetosphere.
Io’s status as the celestial body with the most active volcanoes in the solar system is attributed to the gravitational interaction with Jupiter and its other large satellites – Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. These interactions generate huge tidal forces, causing the surface of Io to bend and undulate violently, with elevations up to 100 meters and active volcanoes spewing lava dozens of kilometers high.
The volcanic activity on Io also has a significant impact on the entire Jupiter system, with some of the particles escaping Io’s thin atmosphere and forming a ring of hot plasma around Jupiter. This is why the data collected by Juno is invaluable in understanding the dynamics of the Jupiter system.
The latest images from Juno revealed that Io’s surface is covered with hundreds of active volcanoes and molten silicate lava lakes, giving the landscape the appearance of tortured burn scars. Juno is expected to make another close flyby of Io on February 3, 2023, providing further insights into the volcanic activity of the moon.
However, Juno’s mission is expected to come to an end in September 2025, when it will plunge into Jupiter’s atmosphere, bringing an end to nine years of research on the Jupiter system. The valuable data collected by Juno during its extended mission will continue to provide scientists with important insights into the complex dynamics of the Jupiter system and its volcanic moon, Io.