NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Provides Stunning Aerial View of Lava Lake on Jupiter’s Moon Io

NASA’s Juno spacecraft provides a stunning aerial view of a lava lake on Jupiter’s moon Io. It managed to get within about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the Jovian moon’s surface, obtaining the first close-up images of its northern latitudes.

Besides flying over lava lakes, Juno’s primary mission is to collect data that could help scientists better understand Jupiter’s water abundance. This is being accomplished by searching for oxygen and hydrogen molecules in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Scientists announced the new findings on Wednesday, April 16, during a news conference at the European Geophysical Union General Assembly in Vienna.

Io is simply littered with volcanoes, and we caught a few of them in action. We also got some great close-ups and other data on a 200-kilometer-long (127-mile-long) lava lake called Loki Patera. There is amazing detail showing these crazy islands embedded in the middle of a potentially magma lake rimmed with hot lava,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator.