Nasa’s Juno probe is bearing down on Io, the most volcanically active world in the Solar System.
It’s in the process of making a series of ever closer flybys.
Already, the spacecraft has passed by the Jupiter moon at a distance of 80,000km, to reveal details of its hellish, lava-strewn landscape.adidas originals 3mc black adidas femme sarenza deuter spheric 28 Switzerland adidas 3st.003 férfi deszkás cipő fehér kék deuter spheric 28 Switzerland vendita orologi a pendolo amazon alviero martini prima classe portafoglio scooter hut melbourne harmont&blaine polo ralph lauren купить Parfums Femme the home deco factor epson printer xp 2100 air max plus laser blue veste moto toute saison amazon vendita orologi a pendolo amazon
But Juno will get much, much nearer to Io over the course of the next year, eventually sweeping over the surface at an altitude of just 1,500km.
It’s more than 20 years since we’ve had such an encounter with the 3,650km-wide object.
“We have a number of objectives besides trying to understand the volcanoes and lava flows, and to map them,” said Juno’s principal investigator, Dr Scott Bolton from the Southwest Research Institute.
“We’re also going to be looking at the gravity field, trying to understand the interior structure of Io, to see if we can constrain whether the magma that’s creating all these volcanoes forms a global ocean, or whether it’s spotty,” he told BBC News.
Io’s volcanism is driven by its proximity to Jupiter. It means the moon is subject to immense tidal forces and heating.
It’s a fun time for the Juno mission right now.
Sent primarily to investigate the origin and evolution of Jupiter, Juno has been able to take in bonus observations of the planet’s four major moons – Callisto, Ganymede, Europa and now Io.
The spacecraft is picking them off one by one as its orbit around Jupiter narrows. BBC