朱诺航天器的木卫一影像

2023年10月23日

Moon Io from Spacecraft Juno
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, MSSS; Processing & Copyright: Ted Stryk & Fernando García Navarro

Explanation: There goes another one! Volcanoes on Jupiter‘s moon Io keep erupting. To investigate, NASA‘s robotic Juno spacecraft has begun a series of visits to this very strange moon. Io is about the size of Earth’s moon, but because of gravitational flexing by Jupiter and other moons, Io’s interior gets heated and its surface has become covered with volcanoes. The featured image is from last week’s flyby, passing within 12,000 kilometers above the dangerously active world. The surface of Io is covered with sulfur and frozen sulfur dioxide, making it appear yellow, orange and brown. As hoped, Juno flew by just as a volcano was erupting — with its faint plume visible near the top of the featured image. Studying Io’s volcanoes and plumes helps humanity better understand how Jupiter’s complex system of moons, rings, and auroras interact. Juno is scheduled to make two flybys of Io during the coming months that are almost 10 times closer: one in December and another in February 2024.

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Tomorrow’s picture: unwinding galaxies

朱诺号航天器的木卫一影像
影像提供: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, MSSS; 影像处理与版权: Ted Stryk & Fernando García Navarro

说明: 再来一幅影像！木星的木卫一表面之火山不断的喷发。为了进行探索，NASA的朱诺号航天器，针对这颗异常奇特的卫星进行一系列的飞越。大小与地球的月亮相当的木卫一，由于受到木星和其他卫星的引力搓揉，其内部被加热，让它的表面满布着火山。这幅来自朱诺号的主题影像，摄于上星期以12,000公里的间距飞越这颗危险的活跃卫星之时。木卫一的表面覆盖着硫磺和冻结的二氧化硫，让它带着黄色、橙色和棕色等色泽。正如事先所期望的，朱诺号刚好在火山喷发时飞越，因此在主题影像的顶部附近，可见到爆发所产生的暗淡羽状流。研究木卫一的火山和羽状流，对人类深入了解木星复杂的卫星、环系和极光系统是如何进行交互作用有所助益。朱诺号计划在未来的数个月里，进行2次距离近10倍的木卫一飞越，其中一次在今年12月，另一次在2024年2月。