【Sigad Sharaf】

NASA is Sigad Sharafcreeping closer to a tortured world.

The space agency's Juno spacecraft has been swooping ever-closer to Jupiter's moon Io, a place teeming with volcanoes and lava. It's a truly volcanic orb. In early March, Juno passed some 32,044 miles from Io. On May 16 Juno returned, traversing just 22,060 miles from Io and capturing rich imagery.

Over the coming year, it's only going to get closer, ultimately traveling within 930 miles, or 1,500 kilometers, from Io. That's darn close. The Hubble telescope orbits around 332 miles above Earth.

---

You May Also Like

---

---

"We're marching closer and closer," Scott Bolton, the Juno mission's principal investigator, told Mashable in March.

SEE ALSO: There are mysterious "super-Earths" all over the galaxy

Take a look at Juno's latest Io imagery, with NASA images expertly processed by citizen scientists and professional image processors.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Io on left as the volcanic moon orbits Jupiter, on right. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill CC BY 3.0 Io as viewed from 22,135 miles (35,623 kilometers) away. Credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Jason Perry CC BY 3.0

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Juno captured these images on its 51st trip around Jupiter. The spacecraft isn't headed towards Io, but is making close, planned passes as it zooms around the nearby gas giant.

For planetary scientists, the images are invaluable.

"Io is the most volcanic celestial body that we know of in our solar system," Bolton said in a statement. "By observing it over time on multiple passes, we can watch how the volcanoes vary — how often they erupt, how bright and hot they are, whether they are linked to a group or solo, and if the shape of the lava flow changes."

---

Related Stories

---

• NASA swooped over ocean world Europa and captured weird, stunning footage
• Who owns the moon's precious water?
• Scientists wonder if a dark, volcanic world could host life
• The best telescopes for gazing at stars and solar eclipses in 2024
• If a scary asteroid will actually strike Earth, here's how you'll know

"We're marching closer and closer."

Io is blanketed in volcanoes because it's stuck in a relentless "tug-of-war" between the massive Jupiter and two of Jupiter's other big moons, Ganymede and Europa — a world that might harbor a sizable ocean. This powerful push and pull creates profound heat inside a world that's a little larger than our moon. All this heat seeks to reach the surface, resulting in molten lava and extreme volcanism.

Want more scienceand tech news delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for Mashable's Light Speed newslettertoday.

By year's end, in late December, the spacecraft will make its closest pass by Io (and again in early 2024). Prepare for some unprecedented imagery.

• Science
• Social Good
• Life
• Shopping
• Tech
• Entertainment
• Deals
• Games

• Exceptionally rare radio sources detected in the distant universe
• Zucktown, USA
• We are really bad at heeding warnings about disasters
• Mattress Mack Will Save You
• 5 Ways to Access a Locked Windows Account
• We’re Living in “The Thick of It”
• The Conversion of Gucci Mane
• Underwriters of the World, Ideate!
• Outdoor speaker deal: Save $20 on the Soundcore Boom 2
• We are really bad at heeding warnings about disasters

• Charles Hardin Holly; Clovis, New Mexico; May 27, 1957 by John Jeremiah Sullivan
• A Week in Culture: Sadie Stein, Editor by Sadie Stein
• Staff Picks: ‘The Duel,’ An Annotated ‘Peter Pan’ by The Paris Review
• Gary Lutz on ‘Divorcer’ by Andrew Martin
• More From Our Southern Editor: House of Horrors by Lorin Stein
• On the Shelf by Sadie Stein
• Brenda Shaughnessy’s “I’m Over the Moon” by Lorin Stein
• Assault on the Minibar by Dubravka Ugresic
• Work Frustrations; Social Climbing by Lorin Stein
• Misspent Youth; Reading 'Fup' by Chris Flynn

• Robin Triumphant
• Shrinking the President
• If we die in a nuclear blast, at least we can go out laughing at the world’s worst people
• Tory Porn
• The State of PC Gaming in 2016
• Shrinking the President
• The Past is a Foreign Agent
• Mommy Issues
• Bomb Envy
• Dunce’s App

• NYT Strands hints, answers for May 5
• Hang the Landlord
• Sweet, Sweet Phantasy
• The Pizzagate Polity
• Hurricane Laura's impact lingered with nightmarish mosquito swarms
• Tragic Kingdom
• A Coalition Government of the Heart
• A Coalition Government of the Heart
• The Sound and the “Furious”
• General McMaster and the Miniskirts