NASA’s Juno spacecraft beamed again gorgeous new pictures of Jupiter’s moons, Io and Europa.
Juno’s newest view of the 2 moons was captured throughout the spacecraft’s thirty ninth shut flyby of Jupiter on Jan. 12. At the time, the spacecraft was about 38,000 miles (61,000 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 52 levels south.
The new photo, which NASA shared on March 16, affords a shocking view of Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, with two of its many moons to the correct of the body. A zoomed in view that the company additionally shared brings the moons into clear view, with Io on the left and Europa on the correct.
Related: Jupiter’s largest moon revealed in gorgeous element in first close-up pictures in 20 years
Jupiter’s moon Io is probably the most volcanic physique within the photo voltaic system. Hundreds of volcanoes dot its floor, some of them spewing sulfurous plumes lots of of miles excessive.
Conversely, Europa, the smallest of Jupiter’s 4 large Galilean moons, has an icy floor, beneath which lies a worldwide ocean of liquid water, scientists consider. Previous observations have discovered proof of potential water plumes jetting from the Europa’s south polar area, suggesting that there’s water within the moon’s subsurface ocean breaking out by way of cracks within the icy crust.
The Juno spacecraft is predicted to make its closest fly-by of Europa later this yr, in September. During this fly-by, the probe will use a number of of its scientific devices to check Europa in higher element and seize much more gorgeous views of the mysterious moon.
The Juno mission can even make shut approaches to lo in late 2023 and early 2024, in keeping with the NASA assertion. The mission is at present anticipated to finish in September 2025.
Two key spacecraft will quickly observe in Juno’s wake designed to focus completely on understanding the enormous’s moons: NASA’s Europa Clipper mission and the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE).
The new Jupiter photo was processed by citizen scientist Andrea Luck, utilizing uncooked information from the JunoCam instrument. JunoCam’s uncooked pictures are available online to the general public; members of the group may counsel options on Jupiter for the digital camera to {photograph}.
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