NASA's Jupiter-exploring spacecraft will fly close to its satellites to observe its satellites by the end of the year

[New Sancai Compilation and First Release] The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Juno spacecraft will make its closest approach to Jupiter's moon Io on December 30, 2023. NASA believes that it is the most volcanic place in the solar system.

The orbiter has been monitoring Io from a distance since arriving at Jupiter in 2016, where it will be 930 miles from its surface. NASA said that Io's volcanoes are sometimes so powerful that they can be seen with large telescopes on Earth, and there are even lakes of molten silicate lava on the surface of Io.

"By combining data from this flyby with our previous observations, the Juno science team We are studying changes in Io's volcanoes." "We are looking at how often they erupt, how bright and hot they are, how the shapes of lava flows change, and how Io's activity relates to the flow of charged particles in Jupiter's magnetosphere."

Juno entered Jupiter's orbit on July 4, 2016 and was the first spacecraft to conduct observations beneath Jupiter's dense clouds to answer questions about the gas giant, the largest planet in the solar system. NASA said the orbiter has flown by Jupiter 56 times (Saturday will be its 57th), as well as Ganymede, the largest of Jupiter's 95 moons, and Europa, the fourth-largest moon. Io is Jupiter's third-largest moon, and Juno has yet to get close to Jupiter's second-largest moon, Callisto, which orbits farther from Jupiter than the other three moons.

NASA said Juno will also arrive 930 miles from the surface of Io on February 3, 2024. The spacecraft has been monitoring Io's volcanic activity at a range of approximately 6,830 miles to 62,100 miles and provided the first images of its north and south poles.

"Through our two close flybys in December and February, Juno will investigate the source of Io's massive volcanism, whether there is a magma ocean beneath its crust, and the importance of tidal forces from Jupiter. , tidal forces squeezed the tortured moon relentlessly," Bolton said.

NASA said Juno's Jupiter infrared auroral mapper will collect heat signatures from the volcanoes and craters covering Io's surface. The orbiter's Stellar Reference Unit will obtain the highest-resolution surface images to date, and the JunoCam imager will capture visible-light color images.

During its flyby of Jupiter, the spacecraft experienced one of the harshest radiation environments in the solar system. Jupiter's magnetic field is 16 to 54 times stronger than Earth's magnetic field. NASA said that near the planet, the magnetic field will trap large amounts of charged particles and accelerate them to produce intense radiation, bombarding the innermost satellites and potentially damaging spacecraft.

"Over the past few orbits, the cumulative effect of all the radiation has begun to show up on the Juno camera," Ed Hirst, Juno project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a press release. "Photos from the last flyby showed a reduction in the dynamic range of the imager and the presence of 'streak' noise. Our engineering team has been working on solutions to mitigate radiation damage and keep the imager functioning properly." run."

Juno's extended mission is scheduled to end in September 2025, and it is likely to deliberately fall into Jupiter's atmosphere.

(Compiled by: Wang Jimin)

(Editor: Jiang Qiming)

(Source of the article: First published by Xinsancai)