![]() ![]() September 2022 is a great month to look for Jupiter’s. (Jupiter now has 53 named moons and another 26 awaiting official names. These four satellites are collectively called the Galilean moons to honor the Italian astronomer Galileo, who discovered them in 1610. For many years, Jupiter trailed behind Saturn for the record number of moons. n /), or Galilean satellites, are the four largest moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.They are the most readily visible Solar System objects after Saturn, the dimmest of the classical planets, which are readily visible from Earth by the unaided eye, even under night sky conditions of high light pollution. The four moons collectively are referred to as the Galilean moons. Four centuries later, we know that those points of light seen fluttering in the eyepiece of Galileo’s telescope were, in fact, the moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto the four largest of Jupiter’s extended family of moons. But it is the names that Simon Marius proposed for the moons – names suggested to him by fellow astronomer Johannes Kepler – that we use today: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. This went against the widely accepted belief at the time that the Sun, the. By discovering four moons of the planet Jupiter, he gave visual evidence that supported the Copernican theory that Earth and the other planets orbit the Sun. He also referred to the moons numerically as I, II, III, and IV. Modern physics owes its beginning to Galileo, who was the first astronomer to use a telescope. Galileo originally called Jupiter's moons the Medicean planets after his patrons, the Medici family. 410 Years Ago: Galileo Discovers Jupiter’s Moons Peering through his newly-improved 20-power homemade telescope at the planet Jupiter on Jan. Galileo published his findings in March 1610 in a book titled “Sidereus Nuncius” or “The Starry Messenger.” The German astronomer Simon Marius may have observed the moons around the same time as Galileo, but Galileo is credited with the discovery. These four moons were the first objects found to orbit something other than Earth or the Sun, providing strong evidence for the idea, known as the Copernican theory, that most celestial objects did not revolve around Earth. Soon, Galileo determined there were four “stars.” Within days, he had figured out that these points of light were actually moons orbiting Jupiter. 7, 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was looking at Jupiter through his homemade telescope when he spotted what he thought were three small, bright stars near Jupiter. The Juno spacecraft took this image of Jupiter and the four Galilean moons on June 21, from 6.8 million miles away. The discovery of Ganymede and Jupiter’s three other largest moons - Europa, Io, and Callisto - forever changed the way we view our solar system.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |