The Juno spacecraft, which has been hovering above Jupiter, for a change has taken another pass at Europa, the moon with more water than oceans on Earth. The images taken by Juno reveal surface features in a region near the moon’s equator called Annwn Regio.
Juno’s close-up views and data from its Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument will provide new details on how the structure of Europa’s ice varies beneath its crust. (Photo: Nasa)
The spacecraft has beamed back the image captured during its closest approach, on Thursday. This was the third pass by Juno in history, which took it just 500 kilometers above the surface of the watery world. This was the closest flyby of the probe since Galileo came within just over 300 kilometers above the surface.
Scientists at Nasa had switched on the JunoCam on the spacecraft, which zoomed in on a swath of Europa’s surface north of the equator. The image revealed rugged terrain features including tall shadow-casting blocks, due to the enhanced contrast between light and shadow.
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Nasa said that while bright and dark ridges and troughs curve across the surface, the terminator might be a degraded impact crater. The spacecraft flew around the moon in a two-hour window racing past at a speed of 84,960 kilometers per hour. The mission collected high-resolution images of the Moon and obtained valuable data on Europa’s ice shell structure, interior, surface composition, and ionosphere and its interaction with Jupiter’s magnetosphere.
The complex, ice-covered surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during a flyby on Sept. 29, 2022. At closest approach, the spacecraft came within a distance of about 219 miles (352 kilometers). (Photo: Nasa)
“The science team will be comparing the full set of images obtained by Juno with images from previous missions, looking to see if Europa’s surface features have changed over the past two decades. The JunoCam images will fill in the current geologic map, replacing existing low-resolution coverage of the area,” Candy Hansen, a Juno co-investigator said.
Juno’s mission around Europa is aimed at charting a course and setting the foundation for a future mission to the lunar world, as Nasa preps the Europa Clipper Mission. Set to launch in 2024, Europa Clipper will study the moon’s atmosphere, surface, and interior, with its main science goal being to determine whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life.
The Europa Clipper mission is preparing to conduct the first dedicated and detailed study of an ocean world beyond Earth. The probe will determine if this distant moon has conditions favourable for life. The expedition’s objective is to explore Europa to investigate its habitability.
