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From left: Ganymede, Europa, and Io – the three Jovian moons – and Jupiter. /NASA
NASA's Juno spacecraft is set to make its closest approach yet to Jupiter's fiery moon this Sunday, the agency said on Thursday.
When Juno flies by Jupiter's fiery moon Io, the spacecraft will be making its closest approach yet, coming within 22,000 kilometers of it.
Data collected by science instruments, including the Italian-built Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), is expected to provide a wealth of information on the hundreds of erupting volcanoes pouring out molten lava and sulfurous gases all over the volcano-festooned moon, according to NASA.
"While JIRAM was designed to look at Jupiter's polar aurora, its capability to identify heat sources is proving to be indispensable in our hunt for active volcanoes on Io," said Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
"As we get closer with each flyby, JIRAM and other instruments aboard Juno add to our library of data on the moon, allowing us to not only better resolve surface features but understand how they change over time," Bolton said.
Launched in 2011, the spinning, solar-powered spacecraft has been studying the Jovian system since 2016 and will begin the third year of its extended mission on July 31.
The Jovian system encompasses Jupiter, its rings and its moons.
The Juno mission aims to study the gas giant's gravitational and magnetic fields, vast magnetosphere, intense aurora and the swirling clouds that form Jupiter's colorful atmosphere in order to learn how Jupiter formed and how it has evolved, according to NASA.
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Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466