NASA’s Juno spacecraft, already famous for dodging radiation and taking selfies with Jupiter, has now given us the most detailed temperature map yet of the gas giant’s moody moon Io - the solar system’s most volcanically active body. Using its Microwave Radiometer (MWR), Juno peered through Io’s thin atmosphere during two close flybys: Perijove 57 on Dec. 30, 2023, and Perijove 58 on Feb. 3, 2024. The black overlapping lines on the resulting graphic show the instrument’s footprints during the first pass, which mapped the northern hemisphere; the blue lines represent the second pass, which focused on mid-latitudes and the equator. Both passes covered the side of Io that perpetually faces Jupiter, because why not stare at the planet that’s constantly pulling your strings? The sweeping, overlapping patterns come from the spacecraft spinning at a brisk two revolutions per minute while zipping past at a distance of roughly 930 miles (1,500 kilometers). The data will help scientists understand the heat distribution and volcanic activity on this tortured moon, which is about as stable as a reality TV reunion.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for principal investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The MWR was built by JPL, and Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft. For those who want to dive deeper into the data - or just see some pretty pictures - more information is available at nasa.gov/juno or missionjuno.swri.edu.