This composite of the Galilean Satellites shows images of the moons taken by the Galileo spacecraft, as well as details from the surfaces of the moons.
Click on image for full size
NASA
Galilean Satellites
The Galilean satellites are the 4 major moons of Jupiter,
Io,
Europa,
Ganymede, and
Callisto. In this picture, Io, and Io’s surface, are shown on the left-most end, then Europa, and its surface, then Ganymede, then Callisto. Of Jupiter’s 60 moons, these four are the biggest.
These moons were discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Their discovery by Galileo was a key piece of evidence that the Earth was not the center of the Universe. Although Galileo initially thought they were stars, his continued observations over a couple of weeks showed that the objects remained near Jupiter. He was finally able to show that they were in orbit around Jupiter, thus proving that not all objects in the heavens orbited Earth.
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