Factbites
 Where results make sense
About us   |   Why use us?   |   Reviews   |   PR   |   Contact us  

Topic: Galilean moons


Related Topics

In the News (Sat 26 Jul 08)

  
  Terms and Definitions
The inclination of a planet's orbit is the angle between the plane of its orbit and the ecliptic.
The inclination of a moon's orbit is the angle between the plane of its orbit and the plane of its primary's equator.
A circular feature on the surface of dark icy moons such as Ganymede and Callisto lacking the relief associated with craters; Pamlimpsests are thought to be impact craters where the topographic relief of the crater has been eliminated by slow adjustment of the icy surface.
www.solarviews.com /eng/terms.htm   (4656 words)

  
 Galilean moons - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Galilean moons are the four moons of Jupiter discovered by Galileo Galilei.
The Galilean moons are visible from Earth with a small telescope or binoculars.
The Galilean moons were first observed by Galileo on January 7, 1610.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Galilean_moons   (721 words)

  
 Exploring The Planets - Jupiter - The Moons of Jupiter
The small outermost moons may be asteroids captured by the gravitational pull of Jupiter.
The four Galilean satellites [24k JPG] of Jupiter were faint dots of light in astronomers' telescopes before the encounters of the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft.
Amalthea, one of the small Jovian moons, is highly irregular in shape, and keeps its long axis pointed towards Jupiter as it rotates around the planet.
www.nasm.si.edu /ceps/etp/jupiter/jupmoons.html   (265 words)

  
 Astronomy For Kids -The Moons of Jupiter - KidsAstronomy.com
Leda is the ninth moon from the Surface of Jupiter.
Himaila is the tenth moon from the surface of Jupiter.
The eleventh moon from Jupiter's surface is Lysithea.
www.kidsastronomy.com /jupiter/moons.htm   (1035 words)

  
 The Moons of Jupiter - Astronomy for Kids
The four largest moons are called the Galilean moons because they were discovered by Galileo Galilei when he started using his primitive telescope almost five hundred years ago.
Io is the closest Galilean moon of Jupiter.
The third Galilean moon is not only the largest (3157 miles in diameter) moon of Jupiter, it is the largest moon in the solar system and is actually larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto.
www.dustbunny.com /afk/planets/jupiter/jupmoons.html   (1318 words)

  
 Galilean moons of Jupiter
The positions of the four Galilean moons are usually listed in ephemerides as a series of X and Y coordinates.
Galilean moons of Jupiter ========================= year : 1997 month : 8 day : 7 hour UT : 22 minute : 25 radii arcmin Io : 5.4 2.2 Europa : 7.1 2.9 Ganymede : -14.5 -5.9 Callisto : 24.3 9.8 distance : 4.044 jup disc : 48.6
I feel better about only seeing three of the moons using hand held 7 x 35 binoculars; the separation of Io and Europa is only 0.7 minutes of arc.
www.stargazing.net /kepler/galileo.html   (793 words)

  
 Notes: JUPITER'S MOONS
The Galilean moons, starting from the outermost and moving inward, are Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io (named after four of the god Jupiter's startlingly numerous lovers).
A sharper view of the Galilean moons was provided by the two Voyager spacecraft, which flew past Jupiter in 1979, and the Galileo spacecraft, which went into orbit around Jupiter in 1995.
Note that the orbital period of Europa is twice that of Io, and the orbital period of Ganymede is twice that of Europa; these moons are in an orbital resonance.
users.zoominternet.net /~matto/M.C.A.S/notes_jupiters_moons.htm   (1348 words)

  
 NASA's Solar System Exploration: Planets: Jupiter: Moons
The German astronomer Simon Marius claimed to have seen the moons around the same time, but he did not publish his observations and so Galileo is given the credit for their discovery.
This moon intrigues astrobiologists because of its potential for having a 'habitable zone.' Life forms have been found thriving near subterranean volcanoes on Earth and in other extreme locations that may be analogues to what may exist on Europa.
Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system (larger than the planet Mercury), and is the only moon known to have its own internally generated magnetic field.
solarsystem.nasa.gov /planets/profile.cfm?Object=Jupiter&Display=Moons   (649 words)

  
 jupiter's moons   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-17)
Io (picture) is the innermost Galilean moon, and this position has made it a very active body, due to strong tidal interaction with Jupiter and Europa.
These outer Galilean moons are more heavily cratered since there is less tidally induced (by Jupiter) internal activity to erase them.
The eight outer moons of Jupiter's system are very interesting, because they're sort of grouped together in two groups of four, one orbiting in a prograde direction (the same direction as Jupiter rotates), and the outer ones in a retrograde direction.
www.gpc.edu /~fbuls/ast101/part4/jupm.htm   (517 words)

  
 Jupiter - The Galilean Moons
Galileo Galilei, an Italian Astronomer, discovered the four moons of Jupiter 1609 (along with the phases of Venus) using a new invention called a telescope.
The discovery of the phases of Venus and the orbits of the four moons of Jupiter helped to add evidence of the Sun-centered Universe (heliocentric).
More details on each moon have been left to their own sections, but much of our knowledge is limited and will require further data analysis and collection.
astronomyonline.org /SolarSystem/GalileanMoons.asp   (280 words)

  
 Jupiter's Moons
Callisto, the outermost of the Galilean moons, is almost an exact twin of Mercury in size and appearance.
The outer 33 moons all orbit Jupiter in a direction opposite (except for J/2003 J20) to that which Jupiter spins, which leads scientists to believe they are captured asteroids.
Nearly all of the moons that have been discovered in the last few years orbit retrograde to the direction of Jupiter's rotation, indicating that they are most likely not native to the system.
filer.case.edu /~sjr16/jupiter_moons.html   (550 words)

  
 Jupiter
The four largest moons of Jupiter are known as the Galilean moons and are named Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io.
Twelve of Jupiter's moons are relatively small and seem to have been more likely captured than to have been formed in orbit around Jupiter.
The four large Galilean moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, are believed to have accreted as part of the process by which Jupiter itself formed.
www.solarviews.com /eng/jupiter.htm   (2783 words)

  
 SURFACE OF THE GALILEAN MOONS ACTIVITY   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-17)
That is, the force of gravity on the moon from Jupiter is stronger on the side closer to Jupiter and smaller on the side farther away from Jupiter.
As the moon orbits around Jupiter the location of these bulges changes and this change in the shape of the moon results in friction and heating.
Thus a hotter interior is produced by friction caused by distortion of the moon by the tidal gravitational force produced by Jupiter.
www.pa.msu.edu /~steinr/isp205.s99/galileanmoon_act.ans.html   (397 words)

  
 sciforums.com - Galilean moons   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-17)
Astronomer's current thinking is that the Galilean moons, unlike Earth's moon or the planets in the solar system, formed by a slow building-up process, one that began in the final stages of Jupiter's growth.
Jupiter and its moons can be sliced through with a single imaginary plane in space, which is what you would expect if they had formed out of a single disk of material.
The other moons have clearer divisions, probably as a result of being closer to Jupiter, thus forming faster and absorbing heat from the giant planet, Davidson said.
www.sciforums.com /printthread.php?t=4156   (568 words)

  
 Galilean Moons
Moons of Jupiter computer simulation shows the moons to you as they would appear if you were to look through a telescope at the specified time.
R = 0.5 J.D. In order to measure the perpendicular distance of each moon from Jupiter, move the cursor until the moon is centered in the cross hairs and then hold down the mouse button.
For some moons, you may not get enough observations for a full period, so these points may be of use to you in determining the period, even though the moon has not gone through a complete orbit.
lpc1.clpccd.cc.ca.us /lpc/bazan/astro30/Galilean_Moons.htm   (4117 words)

  
 Jupiter
Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the sky (after the Sun, the Moon and Venus).
It was a major point in favor of Copernicus's heliocentric theory of the motions of the planets (along with other new evidence from his telescope: the phases of Venus and the mountains on the Moon).
The four Galilean moons are easily visible with binoculars; a few bands and the Great Red Spot can be seen with a small astronomical telescope.
seds.lpl.arizona.edu /nineplanets/nineplanets/jupiter.html   (2189 words)

  
 Loony Moons: Chaos, Order and Strange Behavior
The end result is significant: The gravitational interactions during the alignments force the moons into non-circular orbits; the moons’ varying distances from the planet lead to so-called tidal distortions of the moons caused by Jupiter’s gravity.
And it lends further support to the near certainty that the Galilean moons, named for the man who discovered them in the early 1600s, indeed formed along with the planet and were not captured later.
Because the moons orbits are of different lengths, they gather on one side of Saturn now and then and give each other a gravitational kick.
www.space.com /scienceastronomy/solarsystem/loony_moons_021022-1.html   (1348 words)

  
 Jupiter Through a Galilean Telescope
Since the telescope is unable to resolve the moons, they appear as tiny pinpoints of light on the retina; and their brightness is a function of the light gathering power of the telescope, which is in turn a function of the area of the entrance lens.
According to Standish and Nobili, after correcting for the systematic 10% error in scale, the positions of the moons indicated on the drawings made using this later method are usually accurate to within the width of the dot of ink used to represent them.
Less than half the time will all four moons fall simultaneously within a span of 7 arc-min or less, as shown here; and when Jupiter is closest to Earth (making the orbits appear larger) the span of the moons may occasionally exceed the 14 arc-minute diameter field of view of the Galilean telescope.
www.pacifier.com /~tpope/Jupiter_Page.htm   (2557 words)

  
 The Jovian Moons   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-17)
The Galilean moons are all between 3000 and 5000 km in diameter, and they differ markedly in structure.
For the Galilean Moons, we will find that the nearness to Jupiter is the primary determining factor in their structure.
Thus, for most planets and moons in the Solar System mass is destiny, but for the Galilean satellites proximity to Jupiter is destiny and mass is secondary.
csep10.phys.utk.edu /astr161/lect/jovian_moons/jovian_moons.html   (241 words)

  
 Lesson 5: Observing the Galilean Moons
Brief mention of the dance of the Galilean moons was made in the Primer for the Beginner series.
As a result of this phenomenon, we are able to observe occultations by Jupiter, transit shadows of its moons on the planet, and eclipses of the moons by the planet’s shadow.
Gradually, the moon brightens until it reaches its normal magnitude, signaling the end of the eclipse.
www.astronomical.org /astbook/adv5.htm   (1167 words)

  
 Tour the Solar System and Beyond - Moons of Jupiter   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-17)
Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system (larger than even the planet Mercury), and is the first moon known to have its own magnetic field.
The surfaces of the outermost three moons are mostly water ice, mixed with rocky, probably carbon-rich, material.
The insets are all images from Galileo, taken during several of its closest flybys to the Galilean moons in 1996 and 1997.
spacekids.hq.nasa.gov /osskids/animate/jupiter_moons.html   (984 words)

  
 Galileo Project: Galilean Moons - Europa
However, the Pioneer photographs of Jupiter's largest moons were fuzzy and dim.
Earth's Moon has young and old craters literally everywhere, which tells us that it has been geologically inactive for more than a billion years.
Earth has been impacted at least as many times as the Moon, but Earth's surface has been smoothed by active geological processes such as plate tectonics and volcanic flows, and by constant weathering.
www2.jpl.nasa.gov /galileo/moons/europa.html   (927 words)

  
 Galilean satellites
The Galilean satellites were first seen by the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610.
Launched in October 1989, the spacecraft's mission is to conduct detailed studies of the giant planet, its largest moons and the Jovian magnetic environment.
Europa, the smallest of the four moons, is about the size of Earth's moon, while Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system.
www.xtec.es /recursos/astronom/galileo/satgale.htm   (1676 words)

Try your search on: Qwika (all wikis)

Factbites
  About us   |   Why use us?   |   Reviews   |   Press   |   Contact us  
Copyright © 2005-2007 www.factbites.com Usage implies agreement with terms.