On March 1, 2023, NASA’s Juno spacecraft passed by Jupiter’s moon Io, within 51,500 kilometers of the innermost and third largest of the four Galilean moons.
It’s the best and closest view of the most volcanic moon in our Solar System since the New Horizons mission passed by Io and the Jupiter system on its way to Pluto in 2006.
The mottled and colored surface, reminiscent of a pizza, comes from volcanic activity with hundreds of vents on the surface.
Juno orbited Jupiter 49 times and began studying several of Jupiter’s moons.
This final flyby of Io was the third of nine close passes of the volcanic moon over the next year, with the first taking place in December 2022.
A flight to be made on February 3, 2024 next year will approach Io by 1,500 kilometers.