NASA’s Juno space probe is expected to make a close flyby past Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io on December 30, the closest a probe has been to the moon in decades.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft originally launched in August 2011 and arrived at the gas giant Jupiter in 2016. During its time in the Jovian system, the craft has monitored the surface of Io at a distance ranging from 6,830 miles to over 62,100 miles above the surface while surveying other moons in the system.
On December 30, the craft is expected to fly about 930 miles above the surface of the volcanic moon. This is the closest approach to the moon in over two decades.
All three of the craft’s onboard cameras will be trained on the moon to gather scientific data. The JunoCam imager will be taking photos in the visible spectrum of light while the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper will be collecting the heat signatures from volcanos and calderas — large depressions that form when a volcano collapses following an eruption. Meanwhile, the Stellar Reference Unit will collect the “highest resolution” photos of the moon ever taken.
“By combining data from this flyby with our previous observations, the Juno science team is studying how Io’s volcanoes vary,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator, according to NASA. “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.”
The spacecraft will conduct a similar flyby on February 3. After this flyby, the craft will continue to fly past Io every other orbit at further and further distances with the first being at a distance of about 10,250 miles and the last at a distance of about 71,450 miles.
The Juno spacecraft is expected to use its onboard gravity science experiment to study Jupiter’s upper atmosphere.
