Juno photographs billowing volcanic plumes on Io | Astronomy.com

NASA’s Juno mission captured a fabulous picture of volcanic exercise throughout its second flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io on Feb. 3.

The spacecraft snapped the picture of two plumes with its visible-light digicam JunoCam because it skimmed 2,400 miles (3,800 km) above Io’s floor. The paths could also be from one large volcano or two smaller ones on Io’s terrain, according to a release.

The flyby, wherein Juno received as shut as 930 miles (1,500 km) to the floor, was the spacecraft’s second go to to Io. Its first flyby was Dec. 30 final 12 months. Scientists deliberate each journeys to gather information on Io’s volcanic floor and to see whether or not the moon hosts an ocean of magma beneath its rocky floor. Researchers will compile information from each flybys to know the origin of the plumes.

A burdened moon 

Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system with a floor riddled by lots of of volcanoes. Its plumes of lava that burst excessive above the floor have been first seen in March 1979 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. The pull of Jupiter’s gravity — in addition to periodic tugs from a pair of neighboring moons, Europa and Ganymede — creates a tidal bulge in Io’s solid crust, and because it flexes, it creates intense warmth. This warmth powers Io’s signature plumes and lava fountains.

The moon is so energetic that the lava spewed from inside coats the floor with new deposits quicker than incoming asteroids or comets create affect craters, making it troublesome to decipher the age of a given area. (On most planets and moons, the extra craters a area has, the older it’s.) Whereas Io doesn’t maintain water, it options lakes of silicate lava. This tumultuous surroundings makes Io an unlikely place to host life. Nonetheless, researchers are fascinated by learning Io as a result of it would unlock secrets and techniques about volcanic exercise within the solar system.