These closest-ever photos of Jupiter's moon blasting lava will give you cold shivers

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has been a topic of fascination among astronomers for decades. A whopping 95 Jupiter moons have beenofficially discovered and recognised to date. These moons have generated an equal amount of interest, especially lo, the one that sees intense volcanic activity.

Juno, the NASA spacecraft orbiting Jupiter,has captured some extremely close images of Jupiter's tortured moon, Io, the most volcanic world in our solar system. These images are unlike anything you have ever seen and might even give you the shivers.

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Juno, on December 30, was just some 930 miles (1.500 kilometres) away from Jupiter's volcanic moon. Juno has moved progressively closer to Io over the last year. In space terms, this distance is quite close, only three times farther than the Hubble telescope orbits Earth.

Juno survived the extreme radiation around the gas giant to make the near pass and captured impressive images of volcanoes on Jupiter's volcano-blanketed moon. Such high levels of radiation could damage the spacecraft's instruments. For example, a radiation surge during an Io flyby caused the loss of some pictures in 2022.

In 2016, NASA's Alas arrived around Jupiter and endured after following a 1,740-million-mile journey.

Professional and amateur image processors working for NASA or related space research programmes have processed the images sent by NASA's Juno, removing the noise and distortion. Over the two decades, these images are the closest views of Io captured.

About NASA's Juno

Juno has performed 56 flybys of Jupiter, documenting close encounters with three of its four largest moons. Juno's principal investigator, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, said, "By combining data from this flyby with our previous observations, the Juno science team is studying how Io's volcanoes vary."

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Using Juno, researchers will study Io's volcanoes, including their eruption frequencies, brightness, temperatures, and changes in the shape of the lava flow. They will also use the spacecraft to study how Io's activity connects to the flow of charged particles in Jupiter's magnetosphere.

Juno will make another close flyby on February 3.

Juno is a part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Researchers at NASA will also use Juno to find the source of Io's massive volcanic activity. They will also study the significance of tidal forces from Jupiter, which relentlessly squeeze the tortured moon.

NASA's spacecraft has been watching Io's volcanic activities from distances ranging from about 6,830 miles (11,000 kilometres) to over 62,100 miles (100,000 kilometres). Juo gave the first glimpse of the moon's north and south poles. It has also made close flybys of Jupiter's icy moons, Ganymede and Europa.

(With inputs from agencies)