Jupiter and Three Galillean Satellites
March 19, 2003
Jupiter, its Great Red Spot and three of its four largest satellites are visible in this photo taken Feb. 5, 1979, by Voyager 1. The spacecraft was 28.4 million kilometers (17.5 million miles) from the planet at the time. The innermost large satellite, Io, can be seen against Jupiter's disk. Io is distinguished by its bright, brown-yellow surface. To the right of Jupiter is the satellite Europa, also very bright but with fainter surface markings. The darkest satellite, Callisto (still nearly twice as bright as Earth's Moon), is barely visible at the bottom left of the picture. Callisto shows a bright patch in its northern hemisphere.
Topics:
Environment, Jupiter, Callisto, Moons of Jupiter, Exploration of Jupiter, Galilean moons, Voyager 1, Europa, Io
