Jupiters Moons Thebe, Amalthea, and Metis
Explanation:
The robot
spacecraft Galileo in orbit around
Jupiter has recently photographed the
inner moons of Jupiter in greater detail than ever before.
These pictures of
Thebe,
Amalthea,
and
Metis
are shown to scale, and reveal details as
small as three kilometers across.
Amalthea, by contrast, has a
total length of about 200 kilometers.
The
moons are composed
mostly of ice, are much smaller than Jupiter's
more famous
Galilean satellites
(
Io,
Europa,
Ganymede, and
Callisto), and orbit between Io and
Jupiter's rings.
Thebe appears dominated by a huge
impact crater
40 kilometers across.
Astronomers are uncertain of the
origin of the unusual white gash at the bottom of
Amalthea.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
