The lava lake glows bright red, and NASA shares photos of Io taken by Juno in July this year.

CTOnews.com, December 17 (Xinhua)-- NASA's Juno spacecraft has launched a scientific investigation mission to Io. In a recent press release, NASA shared pictures of the surface of Io's volcano taken this summer using Juno's Jupiter auroral infrared imager (Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper,JIRAM).

CTOnews.com learned that the above photo Juno was taken on July 5, 2022, when the spacecraft was about 50000 miles (80467.2 kilometers) from Io, with brighter spots indicating warmer places.

"the team is very excited that Juno's expanded mission includes studying Jupiter's moons," said Scott Bolton, lead researcher of Juno at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "every time we fly by at close range, we get a lot of new information. Juno sensors are designed to study Jupiter, but we are happy that they can perform dual tasks by looking at Jupiter's moons."

NASA says Juno scientists will use the flyby to make the first high-resolution monitoring of the magma-covered satellite to study how Io volcanoes and volcanic eruptions interact with Jupiter's powerful magnetosphere and auroras.