This is the first new picture of the month of Jupiter Ganymede in over 20 years

NASA has just released the first images of the largest moon in Jupiter, Ganymede, captured on Juno’s rapid exploration of space.

Juno passed Ganymede on June 7, approaching about 1000 km from where he was traveling at 66,800 kmh. It is the closest survey that has come to the moon since Galileo in 2000. The photo above was taken by JunoCam, capturing almost the entire Ganymede side at a point of 1km per pixel. Another released image was taken by the Stellar Reference Unit, showing another dark part of the moon lit by Jupiter himself. More photos will be provided in the coming days.

Ganymede is of great importance to scientists for a number of reasons. It has a metal core, and is the only moon in the sun to have its own magnet (although this is well covered by a magnet made by the behemoth Jupiter).