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This annotated image highlights the location of a new source of heat near the south pole of the moon Jupiter Io. The image was generated from data collected on December 16, 2017 by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper instrument aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft when the spacecraft was approximately 470,000 kilometers away from NASA. Io. Higher temperatures are characterized by brighter colors; lower temperatures in the darkest.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / ASI / INAF / JIRAM
The NASA Juno satellite, orbiting Jupiter, has just exploded the already impressive volcanic count of the moon Io of the gaseous giant [19659005] Juno's Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper instrument, or JIRAM, detected a fairly large "hotspot" near the south pole of Io on December 16, 2017, during one of the Jupiter's overflights of the probe. Juno was about 470,000 kilometers from Io at the time, according to NASA officials.
"The new Io hotspot recovered by JIRAM is located about 300 kilometers from the nearest landmark" Alessandro Mura, a Juno co-investigator of the National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome, said in a statement. [Amazing Photos: Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io]
"We do not rule out the motion or modification of a previously discovered hotspot, but it's hard to imagine that we could travel such a distance and be always considered the same thing, "adds Mura
. the most volcanically active body in the solar system, with its entrails tossed and churned by the powerful gravity of Jupiter and the tugs of his other Galilean satellites, Callisto, Ganymede and Europa. Thanks to the efforts of ground-based telescopes and NASA probes such as Galileo orbiting Jupiter and Cbadini studying Saturn, astronomers have already mapped about 150 volcanoes on the moon, some of which explode in 400 km
So, confirming a new Io volcano would not be so shocking. Indeed, according to NASA officials, about 250 additional volcanoes are likely to be discovered on Io, which is the fourth largest moon in the solar system. (With a diameter of about 2,260 miles, or 3,640 km, Io is slightly larger than the Moon.)
The $ 1.1 billion Juno mission came into orbit around Jupiter on the 4th July 2016. The spaceship very elliptical path, making flybys close as the meeting of December 16 every 53 days. During these pbadages, Juno studies the composition, structure and gravitational and magnetic fields of Jupiter, looking for clues to the formation and evolution of the great planet (as well as many other data, as shown by the observations of Io)
The scientific flight of Jupiter takes place today (16 July).
The mission is expected to last until July 2021.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us on @Spacedotcom Facebook or Google+. Published originally on Space.com
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