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A montage of Jupiter and its four largest moons (distance and sizes not to scale) There are 95 moons of Jupiter with confirmed orbits as of 5 February 2024. [1] [note 1] This number does not include a number of meter-sized moonlets thought to be shed from the inner moons, nor hundreds of possible kilometer-sized outer irregular moons that were only briefly captured by telescopes. [4]
Io (/ ˈ aɪ. oʊ /), or Jupiter I, is the innermost and second-smallest of the four Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter.Slightly larger than Earth's moon, Io is the fourth-largest moon in the Solar System, has the highest density of any moon, the strongest surface gravity of any moon, and the lowest amount of water by atomic ratio of any known astronomical object in the Solar System.
The Galilean moons are named after Galileo Galilei, who observed them in either December 1609 or January 1610, and recognized them as satellites of Jupiter in March 1610; [2] they remained the only known moons of Jupiter until the discovery of the fifth largest moon of Jupiter Amalthea in 1892. [3]
Located on Jupiter's moon Io, the lava lake known as Loki Patera is a whopping 127 miles across and spans over 8,300 square miles — meanwhile, Lake Ontario covers just 7,320 mi².
Europa / j ʊ ˈ r oʊ p ə / ⓘ, or Jupiter II, is the smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter, and the sixth-closest to the planet of all the 95 known moons of Jupiter. It is also the sixth-largest moon in the Solar System .
Jupiter's moons were classified into four groups of four, based on their similar orbital elements. [204] This picture has been complicated by the discovery of numerous small outer moons since 1999. Jupiter's moons are divided into several different groups, although there are two known moons which are not part of any group (Themisto and Valetudo ...
This moon — 3,100 km (1,900 miles) in diameter — is the fourth-largest moon orbiting Jupiter. The oceans of Europa may be habitable, according to a new model developed by NASA.
Global image of Jupiter's moon Io acquired by Juno's JunoCam camera on 30 December 2023. The Juno spacecraft was launched in 2011 and entered orbit around Jupiter on July 5, 2016. Juno ' s mission is primarily focused on improving our understanding of Jupiter's interior, magnetic field, aurorae, and polar atmosphere. [88]