The Juno spacecraft approached the celestial body within 1,500 km.
Back in 2016, a NASA mission was launched, in the framework of which the Juno spacecraft targeted the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter. Its main task is to constantly monitor the distant planet, take pictures of it and its massive moon, and transmit them to ground control. Recently, the American space agency published amazing images of Jupiter and its moon Io, which is about the same size as ours.
The probe has now noticed a phenomenon that can even be observed from Earth with the right telescope. There are hundreds of volcanoes on the surface of the celestial body, the activity of which is sometimes associated with a huge light phenomenon visible from afar. Due to regular eruptions, the lava mass formed a 200 km long lake.
It was spotted by astronomers decades ago because of its spectacular appearance, but Juno is the first to take such close-up shots of it. In the center of the formation named Loki Panther, there is a stone island that has already cooled down, and the hot molten rock is probably still actively bubbling at its edges.
Thanks to the close-up shots, NASA researchers also noticed that some of the rocks show an unusually strong reflection, which may indicate their composition. According to their assumptions, this phenomenon can be caused by some kind of glassy substance similar to obsidian, which is often formed on Earth as a result of volcanic activity.
The scientists working on the project made another interesting finding: the surface of Io is much smoother than that of the other three similar so-called Galilean moons, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
