NASA Juno Spacecraft Finds Scarlet Moon Near Jupiter

Jupiter's moon Io seemed to be a fiery scarlet moon in an infrared photograph taken by NASA's Juno mission from 80,000 kilometers (50,000 miles) away.

Juno took the photo last July 5 and made it public through a blog on Wednesday. As observed in its flaming areas, it has stunning shapes of lava flows and lakes.

But now, as part of its continuous study of the planet's inner moons, NASA's Juno mission is scheduled to take further photos from the Jovian moon Io on December 15.

In addition, NASA's Juno provided some details regarding the Ganymede and Europa moons of Jupiter.

NASA's Juno Spacecraft Captures Jupiter Moon Io, Revealing An Incredible Detail of Its Volcanically Active Surface — This infrared image was derived from data collected by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument aboard Juno. In this image, the brighter the color the higher the temperature recorded by JIRAM. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM

NASA's Juno Checks Jupiter Moons on Extended Mission

According to the research team's latest estimate, the conductive ice layer on Ganymede may be at least 30 miles thick on average, with the chance that it may be substantially larger in some places.

During Juno's near approach to Ganymede in June 2021, the Magnetic Field (MAG) and Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) sensors collected data. It demonstrated evidence of the deterioration and restoration of the magnetic field connections between Jupiter and Ganymede.

Similar occurrences with the moon's ultraviolet auroral emissions, which are organized into two ovals and encircle Ganymede, have been observed by the ultraviolet spectrograph on Juno (UVS).

For the next 18 months, the Juno crew will continue to concentrate on Jupiter's moon Io, which is home to the solar system's most active volcano.

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Previous Flybys

The solar-powered spacecraft has previously completed close flybys of Europa and Ganymede and is presently in the second year of an extended mission.

Recent papers in the Geophysical Research Letters and Journal of Geophysical Research obtained by NASA based on Ganymede's flyby on June 7 of last year have been released.

They include inferences from information gathered on the moon's surface composition, ionosphere, interior, and interaction with Jupiter's magnetosphere during the flyby.

The first 3D measurements of the ice shell are among the early findings from Juno's flyby of Europa on September 9 (per NASA). During the flybys, the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) on board Juno provided a third dimension for the mission's study of the Jovian moons.

It allowed scientists to obtain information on the composition, temperature, and cleanliness of the water-ice crust as deep as around 15 miles (24 kilometers) below the surface of Europa and Ganymede.

According to visible-light pictures captured by the spacecraft's JunoCam and by earlier missions to Jupiter, the surface of Ganymede is made up of a variety of older dark terrain, fresher bright terrain, craters, as well as linear features that may be connected to tectonic activity.

When scientists combined the MWR data with the surface photographs, according to Juno's Principal Investigator Scott Bolton, they found that the differences between these various terrain types stretch beyond the surface level.

The city-sized impact crater Tros appears to be the coldest region, according to Bolton, who notes that the youthful, brilliant landscape is cooler than the dark terrain.