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Ephemeris: 10/26/2023 – A closer look at Jupiter’s moon Io

October 26, 2023 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, October 26th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 28 minutes, setting at 6:40, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:13. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:36 tomorrow morning.

My favorite moon of Jupiter has been Io ever since the Voyager 1 spacecraft discovered volcanoes on it. It turns out that Io is the most volcanic body in the solar system and perhaps the least studied of the Galilean moons of Jupiter. Most of the probes that have swung by or orbited Jupiter never got very close to Io, so we never really got a good close look at it. Well, now we are getting that closer look. The Juno spacecraft, which was sent to Jupiter to work out the interior of Jupiter using gravitational effects on its orbit, has now completed its main mission and its orbit has precessed so that now comes close to Io. The Juno spacecraft has a camera, mainly there for the public, which is showing amazing closeups of this moon.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT –4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Io from Juno
This image of Io was recently sent back by the Juno spacecraft currently orbiting Jupiter. In the next few months we’ll be getting even closer images. Credit: NASA/JPL. Via Universe Today.
Io from Galileo
This image of Io was taken back in 1997 by the Galileo Jupiter orbiter. As can be seen, the resolution isn’t as quite as good as the Juno photo. It never got as close to Io as the Juno spacecraft is or will be in the next few months and the CCD technology of the detector wasn’t as good as what we have today, although the optics of the camera probably were a lot better. Near the top of the image can be seen a plume from of an active volcano. Credit: NASA/JPL, DLR. Via Universe Today.

Categories: Astronomy News, Ephemeris Program, Jupiter, NASA Tags: , ,