Scientists on NASA’s Juno mission used complex data collected during two close approaches of Jupiter’s third largest moon, Io, to create an animation highlighting the moon’s most dramatic features Did. Io is slightly larger than earth There are also mountains with smooth lava lakes. Lava lakes like Loki Patera on Io have The surface crust cools and slowly thickens until it becomes more dense than the magma below. It then sinks and pulls in the nearby crust.
Juno, first launched in 2011, arrived at the solar system’s largest planet in 2016 with a mission to explore the Jupiter system.it has 95 known satellites The four largest moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, are called the Galilean moons. Io It has the most volcanic activity.
This animation is an artist concept by Loki Patera, a lava lake on Jupiter’s moon Io, created using data from the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft. With multiple islands within, Loki is a depression filled with magma and edged with lava. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS.
“Io only has a few scattered volcanoes, and we captured some of them active,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator. stated in a statement. “We also got some great close-ups and other data on the 200-kilometre length. [127-mile-long] A lava lake called Loki Patera. It shows in amazing detail that these crazy islands are embedded in the middle of a potential magma lake fringed with hot lava. The specular reflections our instruments record about the lake suggest that parts of Io’s surface are glass-smooth, reminiscent of the obsidian glass produced by volcanoes on Earth. ”
The observations were as follows. Announced on April 16th At the European Geophysical Union General Assembly held in Vienna, Austria.
[Related: See the most volcanic world in our solar system in new NASA images.]
Juno will conduct a very close flight of Io in December 2023; February 2024, reaching within 930 miles of the Earth’s surface. The spacecraft has obtained the first close-up images of Io’s northern latitudes. The map, created using data collected by Juno’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument, shows that while Io’s surface is smooth compared to Jupiter’s other Galilean moons, it is colder than the mid-latitudes at the poles. It shows that there is.
The animation, created using data collected by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno during flybys in December 2023 and February 2024, was dubbed “Steeple Mountain” by the mission science team. An artist’s concept of the characteristics of Jupiter’s moon Io. Credit: NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology/SwRI/MSSS
mountains and polar cyclones
With each pass, Juno moves closer to Jupiter’s north pole. By changing the orientation of the spacecraft, the MWR instrument can improve the resolution of Jupiter’s polar cyclones.These storms on top of gas giants could reach Wind speed is 320 miles per hour And data collected by Juno reveals that not all polar cyclones are created equal.
“perhaps [the] “The most striking example of this difference is seen in the central cyclone at Jupiter’s north pole,” said Steve Levin, Juno project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. stated in a statement. “Although clearly visible in both infrared and visible light images, the microwave signature is not as strong as other nearby storms. This suggests that its subsurface structure must be very different from other cyclones. As the MWR team continues to collect more and better microwave data on every orbit, we expect to develop more detailed 3D maps of these interesting polar storms. Masu.”
How much water does Jupiter have?eternal mystery
one of Juno main goals of science The goal is to collect data that will help astronomers better understand Jupiter’s water abundance. However, the team isn’t looking for liquid water. Instead, they are studying Jupiter’s atmosphere to quantify the presence of molecules that make up water, oxygen, and hydrogen. According to NASAaccurately estimating the oxygen and hydrogen molecules present in Jupiter’s atmosphere is critical to solving some of the fundamental mysteries of how our solar system formed. .
Jupiter was probably the first planet to form Approximately 4.5 billion years ago. It also contains most of the gas and dust that was not captured by the Sun during the formation of the Solar System. Water abundance also has important effects on Jupiter’s meteorology and internal structure.
[Related: Juno finally got close enough to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot to measure its depth.]
1995, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft provided early data on the amount of water on Jupiter, but the data generated more questions than answers. It showed that the gas giant’s atmosphere was unexpectedly hot and actually lacked water, contrary to what computer models had initially shown.
“Although the spacecraft accomplished some amazing science, its data diverged widely from our models of Jupiter’s water abundance, raising the possibility that the space it sampled from may be an outlier. But we couldn’t confirm it before Juno,” Bolton said. “Recent results from MWR data show that the abundance of water near the equator on Jupiter is approximately three to four times the abundance of the Sun when compared to hydrogen. This shows conclusively that the Galileo spacecraft’s entry point was in an unusually dry, desert-like region.
[Related: Jupiter’s icy ocean worlds could be cool travel destinations in the future.]
The new results support the idea that water and icy material may have been the source of heavy element enrichment at some point during the formation of our solar system. These are chemical elements heavier than hydrogen and helium that Jupiter has accumulated. The planet’s formation remains a mystery, as Juno’s results on the core of the gas giant suggest very little water.How rich is H?2The mystery of 0’s existence on a gas giant planet remains and may be solved by the Juno mission.
What’s next for Juno?
The data from Juno’s mission reminder could help determine how much water there is on Jupiter in two ways. This could allow scientists to compare the abundance of water on Jupiter near the poles and at the equator. It could also shed further light on the structure of the planet’s dilute liquid core.
Juno’s Io’s most recent flyby was on April 9th. The spacecraft then arrived within about 10,250 miles of the moon’s surface. The 61st flyby of Jupiter will be Scheduled for May 12th And we will continue to explore the Earth and its satellites. Until September 2025.
