NASA’s Jupiter-orbiting space probe Juno just snapped the most high resolution pic of one of the gas giant’s moons yet.
The spacecraft captured a close-up shot of the icy Europa during a flyby on September 29 using its Stellar Reference Unit (SRU), a star-tracker camera used to help orient Juno. The image reveals a 93-mile by 125-mile section of the moon’s surface that includes crisscrossing ice ridges along with dark spots that researchers believe could be indicating a volcanic eruption below.
” “This image unlocks an incredible level of detail within a region that has not been previously imaged at such high resolution and under such revealing lighting conditions,” Heidi Becker (lead co-investigator) for the SRU, stated in a press release .. She added that the instrument helps reveal insights into how the Jovian moons were formed and how the icy crust was shaped over time.
Aside from giving greater insight into Europa, the image is also the bellwether of future projects planned for Juno to explore Jupiter’s moons. The probe was originally slated to finish its prime mission to study the gas giant in 2021. However, it received a mission extension to continue studying Jupiter and its moons into 2025. Before it snapped the shot of Europa, it also took a stunning picture of the moon Ganymede in June 2021. With this flyby, Juno now has close-ups on two of Jupiter’s most fascinating moons. Their ice shells are very different.” Scott Bolton (Juno’s principal investigator) stated in the press release. “In 2023, Io, the most volcanic body in the solar system, will join the club.”
So while the James Webb Space Telescope continues to garner all the praise from its spectacular images, Juno is a good reminder that NASA still has a few other tricks up their sleeve. The craft’s mission extension will also assure that we continue to learn as much as we can about the gas giant and its moons well into the future.
The post New NASA Photo of Jupiter’s Icy Moon Europa Is One Of the Most Detailual appeared in The Daily Beast ..
