Caption: Jupiter's Galilean moons in collage.
The images were taken by Voyager 1 in 1979 March
Galileo Galilei (1564--1642) himself named the Galilean moons the Medicean Stars. But history rescinded that dedication---the Medici have enough named for them.
The Galilean moons are in their right relative order (inner to outer Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto), but their sizes and are orbit sizes are not-to-scale. By the scale of Callisto, the other Galilean moons look too large. For example, in reality Io is roughly as far away as Jupiter itself from Callisto, and so its diameter should be ∼ 2.5 % of the Jupiter equatorial diameter = 142984 km in the image if the image were to-scale. (see Table: Galilian Moons of Jupiter below). In the image, the Io is ∼ 5 % of the Jupiter equatorial diameter = 142984 km.
See Table: Galilean Moons of Jupiter below (local link / general link: galilean_moons_table.html).
EOF
Credit/Permission: NASA,
1979 /
Public domain.
Image link: Itself.
See also
Wikimedia Commons:
File:Jupiter System Montage - GPN-2000-000451.jpg.
Local file: local link: jupiter_galilean_moons_collage_far.html.
File: Jupiter moons file:
jupiter_galilean_moons_collage_far.html.
