Io is a very active little moon, regularly squeezed and tugged out of round by Jupiter's crushing gravitational / tidal forces, and bombarded by Jupiter's vast magnetic storms / radiation, on the regular. This makes Io. . . an active volcano-rich world -- and a nearly-smooth orb, as it is regularly being resurfaced by lava flows that cool, and then reheat -- and erupt. What a vision to see -- and the graceful Juno craft, via its biggest camera. . . just recently had a front row seat -- and saw it all,beaming the raw data back to us here, on our little blue marble.
Here's the latest, per CNN's science desk:
. . .Close flybys of Io, one of Jupiter’s moons and the most volcanically active world in our solar system, have revealed a lava lake and a towering feature called “Steeple Mountain” on the moon’s alien surface.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which first arrived to study Jupiter and its moons in 2016, flew within roughly 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the lava world’s surface in December and February to capture the first detailed images of Io’s northern latitudes.
It has been more than 20 years since a mission flew so closely by Io, and the spacecraft’s camera, called JunoCam, captured high-resolution images that showcased active volcanic plumes, mountain peaks and a glass-smooth lake of cooled lava. . . .
Do click below -- for an amazingly artistic interp, of the Juno-Cam data:
नमस्ते
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