Juno completes its closest flyby of Jupiter moon Io

NASA’s Juno spacecraft completed its closest flyby of Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io. The flyby was the 53rd close flyby of Jupiter.

Juno was launched in 2011 and arrived at Jupiter in July 2016. It has been orbiting the planet ever since. The most recent orbit included five close-ups of Io while it was between 50,000 and 65,000 miles away.

Juno is an acronym for Jupiter’s Near-Polar Orbiter. It has a planned mission duration of 7 years, but has elapsed 12 years, 2 months, and 12 days. The science phase is extended until September 2025.

Juno will continue to gather images and science data during close flybys later this year and early in 2024.

Juno’s JunoCam instrument captured new images of Io from its closest approach yet on October 15th, from less than 12,000 km away. Now, citizen scientists have processed these images and shared them with the rest of us.

Juno is a NASA space probe that orbits Jupiter. It was launched on August 5, 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as part of the New Frontiers program. Juno was built by Lockheed Martin and is operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Juno’s mission is to:

Orbit Jupiter
Peer below the planet’s dense clouds
Answer questions about the gas giant and the origins of our solar system

Juno entered Jupiter’s orbit on July 4, 2016, five years after its launch. It has a maximum speed of 2,65,500 km/h and an orbital speed of 0.17 km/s. Its altitude is 4,300 km.

Juno was named after a Roman goddess, the female counterpart to the god Jupiter. It was launched by an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Juno has captured images of: