The Moment When NASA's Juno Made Closest-Ever Flyby Of Jupiter's Moon

Space research agency NASA shared highly detailed pictures of one of Jupiter’s moons named ‘Lo’. What makes ‘Lo’ special is its high volcanic activity. The pictures captured by Juno show lo’s light brown surface dotted with massive volcanic eruptions. These pictures were taken when Juno, a solar-powered spacecraft, flew by within 930 miles (1,500 km) of Lo’s surface. As per NASA, this is the “closest flyby of one of Jupiter’s moon Io that any spacecraft has made in over 20 years.” Juno was launched on August 5, 2011, and it entered Jupiter’s orbit on July 4, 2016. Juno was launched to document Jupiter and its four moons.

On January 3, NASA shared a highly detailed photo of lo on Instagram. It mentioned that the photo was first taken on December 30 by JunoCam. NASA wrote, “This view shows Io’s high northern latitudes. A second ultra-close flyby of Io is scheduled for February, in which Juno will again come within about 930 miles (1,500 km) of the surface.” This photo has gathered over 3.9 lakh likes.

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An Instagram user jokingly described the photo as “The potato I forgot in my fridge.” A user wrote, “Galactic sweet potato!.” Another commented, “Omg! Jupiter I looks really magic! Io’s volcanism is responsible for many of its unique features! It’s very interesting!” A person joked about the moon’s two-letter name and remarked, “They were tired of keeping long difficult names so decided to name this as “Lo “.”

NASA also shared more pictures of Lo taken by JunoCam on X.

In a press statement, Juno’s principal investigator, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, anticipated the importance of data that Juno will collect by flying close to Lo’s surface. Bolton said, “By combining data from this flyby with our previous observations, the Juno science team is studying how Io’s volcanoes vary. We are looking for how often they erupt, how bright and hot they are, how the shape of the lava flow changes, and how Io’s activity is connected to the flow of charged particles in Jupiter’s magnetosphere.”

He added, “With our pair of close flybys in December and February, Juno will investigate the source of Io’s massive volcanic activity, whether a magma ocean exists underneath its crust, and the importance of tidal forces from Jupiter, which are relentlessly squeezing this tortured moon.”