Mysterious Moon Bomb Explodes in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot in Juno’s Latest Image

Oh, here it is. Jupiter’s humble moon Amalthea was visible in two recent images taken by NASA’s Juno probe.

During its 59th flyby of Jupiter on March 7, the Juno spacecraft caught your usual stunning views of the swirling winds and colorful belts of the giant planet. New photos have provided an unexpected gift: a rare look at one of Jupiter’s small, mysterious moons.

In the first image on the left, Amalthea can be seen as a small dot against the backdrop of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, which extends over 16,350 kilometers (10,159 miles). As it continues to orbit its parent planet, in the second image the Moon shifts to the right and can be seen just below one of Jupiter’s colorful belts.

There may not be much to see here, but don’t be fooled by this moon’s unassuming appearance. Amalthea is one of four smaller moons orbiting Jupiter’s Galilean moon Io. The small moons Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea and Thebe are oddly shaped because they lack the mass to move into a suitable sphere.

Measuring 52 miles (84 kilometers) wide, Amalthea is shaped like a small heavenly potato. However, the surface of the small moon is riddled with impact craters, hills and valleys. According to scientists, Amalthea is also the reddest object in the solar system and may offer more heat than it receives from the sun. POT. This heat may be due to Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field, which induces electrical currents in the Moon’s core, or to tidal stresses caused by Jupiter’s gravity.

When the first image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 165,000 miles (265,000 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops. Images of Juno are available for public viewing. Web siteand these particular images were improved by citizen scientist Gerald Eichstedt.

Amalthea was discovered in 1892 and named after the mythological naiad (a type of water nymph) who nursed the newborn Roman god Jupiter. The Moon has the third closest orbit among all known satellites of Jupiter (of which 95 are known), and in order to fly around the giant planet, it takes about half an Earth day. It’s small, but certainly powerful.

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