This false-color image was created by citizen scientist Navaneeth Krishnan S using raw data from … [+]
More photos have been returned to Earth from NASA’s Juno spacecraft that show the beauty of the giant planet Jupiter and its little lava-encrusted moon Io.
As the solar-powered spacecraft completed its 47th close pass (perijove) of Jupiter on Dec. 14 it attempted to return its science data to NASA, but the downlink was disrupted.
After an initial return of just one image—of its volcanic moon Io—the rest of the raw data of Io and Jupiter appeared online on Jan.4. Since then a team of image processors—all of them dedicated volunteer “citizen scientists”—have posted online a bunch of spectacular finished images.
The delay was caused by a radiation-intensive portion of Jupiter’s magnetosphere, according to NASA. Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory rebooted its onboard computer and put the spacecraft into safe mode.
Juno’s images of I0—the most volcanic body in the solar system—were captured while Juno was 40,000 miles away. The moon is thought to have an underground ocean of magma. Just before Juno got close to Io an outburst of volcanic activity began.
Io is in a constant gravitational tug-of-war with Jupiter and the other big moons, so much so that it actually changes shape during its 42-hour orbit. It’s thought that the constant stretching and squashing causes frictional “tidal heating.”
This flyby of Io was Juno’s first of nine in the next few years, two of which will be from just 930 miles/1,500 kilometers away.
“The team is really excited to have Juno’s extended mission include the study of Jupiter’s moons. With each close flyby, we have been able to obtain a wealth of new information,” said Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “Juno sensors are designed to study Jupiter, but we’ve been thrilled at how well they can perform double duty by observing Jupiter’s moons.”
Juno launched in 2011 and arrived at Jupiter in 2016. It’s since conducted 47 close flybys of the planet’s polar regions, with the latest on December 15, 2022. It included the first of nine flybys of Io—the most volcanic body in the solar system—two of them from just 930 miles/1,500 kilometers away.
Its two super-close flybys will take place on December 30, 2023 and February 3, 2024. During them Juno will study Io’s volcanoes and how volcanic eruptions interact with Jupiter’s powerful magnetosphere and aurora.
The spacecraft is in a highly elliptical orbit that sees it get close to Jupiter’s moons and the planet’s polar regions only once every five or six weeks, which is when it switches on its two-megapixel camera.
Juno’s mission is to study Jupiter’s composition, magnetic field and magnetosphere, to measure water present within its atmosphere and its winds. It’s discovered how Jupiter’s atmosphere works and revealed the complexity and asymmetry of its magnetic field.
Juno has also revealed the size of Jupiter’s “Great Red Spot,” which stretches over 200 miles/350 kilometers. The Solar System’s largest storm lies 22º south of Jupiter’s equator and has been raging since at least the year 1830. Its diameter makes it almost twice the size of the Earth.
The spacecraft also studied Jupiter’s “Great Blue Spot,” an isolated patch of intense magnetic field near the planet’s equator.
The JunoCam instrument aboard the Mission Juno spacecraft captured this image of Jupiter’s volcanic … [+]
In October 2021 new findings from Juno provided the first 3D look at how the giant planet’s “beautiful and violent atmosphere” operates underneath the top layers of clouds.
It’s also conducted close flybys of Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede and, in total, has sent back over three terabits of science data so far.
However, the spacecraft is now in an exciting extended mission. Having completed in November 2021 its default 37 orbit-strong five-year survey of Jupiter, Juno was handed a new lease of life through 2025.
Although it may get a further extension, if not then the spacecraft’s 76th and final perijove will be on September 15, 2025 when it will perform a “death dive” into the gas giant. That will prevent it from accidentally crashing into, and possibly contaminating, one of Jupiter’s moons.
Juno is the ninth spacecraft to image Jupiter, the other being Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, the Galileo Orbiter and Galileo Probe, Ulysses and Cassini.
Juno’s next close flyby of Jupiter, perijove 48, will take place on January 22, 2023.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
