Although Jupiter’s moon Io can serve as a valuable subject for scientific exploration, it certainly cannot represent the destination for your next vacation. That’s because, well, let’s just say that the weather is bad!
Jokes aside, for now! The Io moon is the most volcanically active cosmic object in the Solar System. In other words, it’s teeming with volcanoes and lava on Io. Somebody once said that the more he looks at hot cosmic objects, the less he doubts the existence of Hell.
Exploring the moons of Jupiter
Jupiter is a fascinating cosmic object. It’s the biggest planet in our Solar System; it’s mostly made of gases, and it has the biggest storm (namely the Great Red Spot). But let’s not forget that Jupiter also has an incredible number of moons revolving around it: 80.
Now let’s talk about Io again, one of the numerous moons of Jupiter. NASA is preparing to study the relatively small cosmic body this week by using the Juno spacecraft’s infrared imaging. The mission will be part of the same spacecraft studying the inner moons of Jupiter.
All eyes on lo, the most volcanic place in the solar system!
NASA’s Juno mission will get images of the Jovian moon Io this week as it explores Jupiter’s inner moons. Juno is performing double duty observing Jupiter's moons with even more flybys to come! https://t.co/eQ9q1ApKor pic.twitter.com/J32tpEKq9o
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) December 14, 2022
Io measures about 2,260 miles in diameter, which makes it slightly larger than our own Moon.
Thomas Greathouse, who’s a Juno scientist from SwRI, explained as NASA’s website quotes:
Nothing is easy – or small – when you have the biggest planet in the solar system as your neighbor,
This was the first measurement of this complicated interaction at Ganymede. This gives us a very early tantalizing taste of the information we expect to learn from the JUICE” – the ESA (European Space Agency) JUpiter ICy moons Explorer – “and NASA’s Europa Clipper missions.
The Io moon was discovered by the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei over four centuries ago, in 1610.
The Juno spacecraft of NASA was launched in 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as part of the New Frontiers program.
