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Scientists on NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter have transformed data collected during two recent flybys of Io into animations that highlight two of the Jovian moon’s most dramatic features: a mountain and an almost glass-smooth lake of cooling lava.

The ice-covered Jovian moon generates 1,000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours – enough to keep a million humans breathing for a day.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured two volcanic plumes rising above the horizon of Jupiter's moon Io on Feb. 3, emitted either by two vents from one giant volcano, or two volcanoes near each other. 

On Saturday, Feb. 3, NASA’s Juno spacecraft made a second close flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io. Like the previous flyby on Dec. 30, 2023, this second pass was at a distance of about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers).  

Juno will come within roughly 930 miles from the surface of the most volcanic world in our solar system.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft will on Saturday, Dec. 30, make the closest flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io that any spacecraft has made in over 20 years.

Gravity data collected by NASA’s Juno mission indicates Jupiter’s atmospheric winds penetrate the planet in a cylindrical manner, parallel to its spin axis. A paper on the findings was recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Data collected by NASA’s Juno mission indicates a briny past may be bubbling to the surface on Jupiter’s largest moon.

On Sept. 7, 2023, during its 54th close flyby of Jupiter, NASA’s Juno mission captured this view of an area in the giant planet’s far northern regions called Jet N7.

Just hours before NASA’s Juno mission completed its 53rd close flyby of Jupiter on July 31, 2023, the spacecraft sped past the planet’s volcanic moon Io and captured this dramatic view of both bodies in the same frame.