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In this phase Juno began to examine Jupiter's inner moons, Ganymede, Europa and Io. A flyby of Ganymede occurred on June 7, 2021, 17:35 UTC , coming within 1,038 km (645 mi), the closest any spacecraft has come to the moon since Galileo in 2000.
FIRE (Flyby of Io with Repeat Encounters) is a concept mission to Jupiter's innermost major moon Io. The mission was first presented in 2012 [ 2 ] for a possible future consideration by NASA's New Frontiers program .
Painting illustrating a flyby of Io by the Galileo spacecraft. The exploration of Io, Jupiter's innermost Galilean and third-largest moon, began with its discovery in 1610 and continues today with Earth-based observations and visits by spacecraft to the Jupiter system.
However, the mission was extended through 2025 to conduct 42 additional orbits, including close flybys of Jupiter's moons Ganymede, Europa, and Io. [24] At the end of its mission, Juno is planned to be deorbited and burned up in Jupiter's outer atmosphere [ 25 ] [ 26 ] to suppress the risk of biological contamination of its moons.
JunoCam successfully returned detailed images of Ganymede after Juno's flyby on June 7, 2021, [6] with further opportunities including planned flybys of Europa on September 29, 2022, and two of Io scheduled for December 30, 2023 and February 3, 2024. These flybys will also reduce Juno's orbital period to 33 days. [7]
Spacecraft that have flown by Io since 1979 have observed numerous surface changes as a result of Io's volcanic activity. [8] Further observations by the Juno orbiter of volcanism and volcanic plumes on Io were made during a 3 February 2024 flyby. [9]
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English: This is the highest resolution image acquired by the Juno spacecraft's JunoCam instrument during the mission's flyby of Io on October 15, 2023. It was acquired from a distance of 11,680 kilometers and has a pixel scale of 3.9 kilometers per pixel (enlarged by 2x from the original 7.86 kilometers per pixel).