Jupiter’s
moon Io is a very active world. NASA’s Juno mission to the Jupiter has revealed
a lot not just about Jupiter but also about its moons. While observing polar
region of Io, Juno’s team managed to catch a volcanic plume being released into
space. Wgile capturing this stunning view there was a solar eclipse on December
21.
At that time
Io was in the shadow of Jupiter and lightly well-lighted by Europa. During that
situation, Io’s most interesting attributes came to light. Jovian Moon, Io, is
the most volcanically active place in the entire Solar System and the hints
from these volcanos are distinctly visible in the observation.
It also
produces a large amount of plasma into space, at a ton per second, which makes
the radiation belts around Jupiter. And in the photos, there was also this
serendipitous plume.
Scott
Bolton, principal researcher of the Juno mission, said in a statement“We knew
we were breaking new ground with a multi-spectral campaign to view Io’s polar
region, but no one expected we would get so lucky as to see an active volcanic
plume shooting material off the moon’s surface. This is quite a New Year’s
present showing us that Juno has the ability to clearly see plumes.”
Juno arrived
at Jupiter in 2016 and the mission is expected to end until summer 2021.
Comments
Post a Comment