An artist's depiction of what the scene must have looked like when the NASA’s Galileo spacecraft approached Amalthea, moon of Jupiter.
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of NASA
A Jupiter moon that has more holes than Swiss cheese!
News story originally written on December 11, 2002
Amalthea is a small reddish moon of Jupiter. It is not made of Swiss cheese, but it does seem to be full of holes. This makes it very light! This new information came from the Galileo spacecraft last week.
Scientists think that the rock that makes up Amalthea is broken into many large boulders. Long ago, the moon may have been one piece, but then it was broken into pieces by collisions. The pieces are just barely touching each other leaving many empty gaps in the moon.
Last modified December 11, 2002 by Lisa Gardiner.
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