Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system, with hundreds of volcanoes that erupt with massive fountains of lava.
The Southwest Research Institute will use the Hubble and James Webb telescopes to simultaneously observe Io from a distance as the Juno spacecraft swings by Jupiter’s moon for a series of flybys over the next year.“The timing of this project is critical,” Kurt Retherford, principal investigator of the campaign at SwRI, said in a.
Io is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System, with hundreds of volcanoes and lakes of molten silicate lava on its surface. The moon is wedged between Jupiter’s immense gravitational force, as well as the gravitational tug of its sister moons Europa and Ganymede. As a result, the moon is constantly being stretched and squeezed, which contributes to its volcanic activity.
“We hope to gain new insights into Io’s dramatic volcanism, plasma-moon interactions and the neutral gas and plasma populations that propagate through Jupiter’s vast magnetosphere and trigger intense Jovian auroral emissions,” Retherford said.NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been studying the Jovian system since 2016, observed Io during previous flybys in May and July.
and then again on September 20, 2024. During those upcoming flybys, scientists will have the opportunity to gather data provided by Juno combined with remote observations by Hubble and Webb.measurements with our remote-sensing observations will undoubtedly advance our understanding of Io’s role in driving coupled phenomena in the Jupiter system,” Retherford said.
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