Jupiter's Moons - Blog Posts

2023 October 23

Moon Io from Spacecraft Juno Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, MSSS; Processing & Copyright: Ted Stryk & Fernando García Navarro

Explanation: There goes another one! Volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io keep erupting. To investigate, NASA’s robotic Juno spacecraft has begun a series of visits to this very strange moon. Io is about the size of Earth’s moon, but because of gravitational flexing by Jupiter and other moons, Io’s interior gets heated and its surface has become covered with volcanoes. The featured image is from last week’s flyby, passing within 12,000 kilometers above the dangerously active world. The surface of Io is covered with sulfur and frozen sulfur dioxide, making it appear yellow, orange and brown. As hoped, Juno flew by just as a volcano was erupting – with its faint plume visible near the top of the featured image. Studying Io’s volcanoes and plumes helps humanity better understand how Jupiter’s complex system of moons, rings, and auroras interact. Juno is scheduled to make two flybys of Io during the coming months that are almost 10 times closer: one in December and another in February 2024.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231023.html

Just so you guys know, the Galilean Moons aren’t Jupiter’s only moons. It has 79 confirmed moons.

Hey, at least they’re not all lonely.

Also, fun-fact, the Moon Europa is a big candidate for a “2nd Earth,” having an ocean under a shell of ice.

WANT MORE? GET YOUR HEAD STUCK IN THE STARS AT MY BLOG!

Over the span of a few hours, I collected images of Jupiter and its Galilean Moons. I labelled each one and you can see them move in their orbits! 🪐🪐🪐

Taken by me (Michelle Park) using the Slooh Canary Two telescope on June 3rd, 2020.