Hubble, Webb Telescopes Team Up to Study Jupiter's Tumultuous Volcanic Moon
The volcano-laced surface of Jupiter’s moon Io was captured in infrared by the Juno spacecraft’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) imager as it flew by at a distance of was about 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) on July 5, 2022.Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM
Jupiter’s orbit is swarming with nearly 100 moons, but none are as hardcore as the volcanic world Io. That’s why it’s going to take an iconic collaboration to truly probe the odd satellite in order to unravel its many mysteries.
The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) will use the Hubble and James Webb telescopes to simultaneously observe Io from a distance as the Juno spacecraft swings by Jupiter’s moon for a series of flybys over the next year.
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“We hope to gain new insights into Io’s dramatic volcanism, plasma-moon interactions and the neutral gas and plasma populations that propagate through Jupiter’s vast magnetosphere and trigger intense Jovian auroral emissions,” Retherford said.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been studying the Jovian system since 2016, observed Io during previous flybys in May and July. The next time Juno approaches the volcanic world will be on December 30, as well as February 1, 2024, and then again on September 20, 2024. During those upcoming flybys, scientists will have the opportunity to gather data provided by Juno combined with remote observations by Hubble and Webb.
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