The most massive of them, the four Galilean moons, were discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei and were the first objects found to orbit a body that was neither Earth nor the Sun. Jupiter's Moons This illustration shows the positions of Jupiter's four Galilean satellites — Io, Europa, Ganymede,and Callisto — in orbit about the planet for any date and time from January 1, 1900, to December 31 2100. Moons of Jupiter. ), the average Earth-Sun distance. The Galilean moons (or Galilean satellites) / ɡ æ l ɪ ˈ l iː ə n / are the four largest moons of Jupiter—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.They were first seen by Galileo Galilei in December 1609 or January 1610, and recognized by him as satellites of Jupiter in March 1610. The name “S/2003 J2” means that it is a satellite (S) that was discovered in 2003 orbiting Jupiter (J) and that it was the 2 nd satellite of Jupiter discovered that year. The images h The next entry is Jupiter's distance from Earth, measured in terms of astronomical units (a.u. This moon has not been seen since its discovery in 2003 and is currently considered lost. These moons are known as the Galilean moons and they are called Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.Jupiter also has dozens of other smaller moons that are thought to have originated from passing asteroids. This gives it the largest retinue of moons with "reasonably secure" orbits of any planet in the Solar System. Jupiter has 63 confirmed moons, giving it the largest retinue of moons with "reasonably secure" orbits of any planet in the Solar System. Jupiter's 4 largest moons exhibit some of the most interesting geology in the solar system. Jupiter and its four largest moons. There are 79 moons known to orbit the giant planet Jupiter. Jupiter - Jupiter - The Galilean satellites: Galileo proposed that the four Jovian moons he discovered in 1610 be named the Medicean stars, in honour of his patron, Cosimo II de’ Medici, but they soon came to be known as the Galilean satellites in honour of their discoverer. 46 of these are less than 3 km wide and probably used to be asteroids before Jupiter's gravity pulled them in. Jupiter, a planet in our Solar System, currently has 79 confirmed moons. Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto-the so-called Galilean satellites-were seen by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager on the New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby of Jupiter in late February 2007. Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, is larger than Mercury while the other three are larger than Pluto. On Jan. 7, 1610, Galileo Galilei's improvements to the telescope enabled humanity to see Jupiter's four largest moons for the first time. Jupiter. Jupiter has four large moons which were discovered by Galileo in 1610 using a 20-power telescope. Because there are so many, they are put into categories with other similar moons. Most of the moons of Jupiter are small, with about 60 of the satellites being less than 6.2 miles in diameter. They were the first objects found to orbit a planet other than the Earth. These are listed in the table below in order of distance from closest to furthest from Jupiter. S/2003 J2 is Jupiter’s outermost known moon. The Moon spans about ½°, or 1,800 arcsec, while Jupiter's angular size is typically between 30 and 45 arcseconds — that's why you need a telescope to see any detail in the planet's cloudtops. List of Jupiter's Moons. The colours in the table of moons correspond with the groups in the guide below. File:Jupiter family.jpg. They were discovered by Galileo Galilei and are known as the Galilean moons. 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