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> Jupiter from Themisto - Illustration

Jupiter from Themisto - Illustration

author: Walter B. Myers/Novapix

reference: a-jup99-00600

Image Size 300 DPI: 34 * 25 cm

This is how Jupiter and its Galilean satellites may appear from the surface of Jupiter's tiny moon Themisto. At a distance of 4.7 million miles, Jupiter subtends an angle of 1.1 degrees (the moon subtends an angle of 0.5 degrees in Earth's sky). The Galilean satellites are, left to right, Ganymede, Europa, Io, and on the far right Callisto. Themisto is the next significant body orbiting Jupiter beyond Callisto. Beyond Themisto are another 54 known jovian satellites. With a mean diameter of only 5 miles and an albedo (surface brightness) about half that of the Moon, no earthbound telescope or interplanetary probe has yet revealed any details of Themisto's surface. In this image the artist is suggesting that Themisto has an ancient, dusty and heavily cratered surface with the occasional--and fanciful--outcropping of dirty water ice.

Keywords for this photo:

ASTRONOMY - GALILEAN SATELLITE - ILLUSTRATION - JOVIAN MOON - JUPITER - PLANET - SATELLITE - SOIL - THEMISTO -