What Are The Following Four Galilean Moons Of Jupiter? (ANSWERS)
GALILEAN MOONS OF JUPITER – In this topic, we are going to learn and identify the four largest Galilean moons of Jupiter.
Jupiter is the fifth and largest planet of the Solar System. It was named after Jupiter, the Roman counterpart of the Greek king of the Olympian god Zeus,
The planet plays a huge part in our perception of the universe in 1610 when a famous astronomer named Galileo Galilei discovered celestial bodies near the planet.
Moons
There are about 79 known moons of this planet. As the topic suggests, we are going to identify the largest four moons known as Galilean moons.
The four moons were named from, you guessed it, Galileo Galilei himself. Interestingly, they are also named after the lovers of Zeus. Here are the following moons:
- Io
- the most volcanically-active and the innermost of the four. It is also the fourth largest moon in the Solar System an is named after Io, Hera’s priestess who became one of Zeus’ lovers.
- Europa
- a moon with a frozen crust of mostly water ice. It is also the second innermost Galilean moons. The moon was named after a Phoenician noblewoman who Zeus courted and became the queen of Crete.
- Ganymede
- the largest natural satellite of Jupiter and the solar system and has its own magnetic field. Named after the cup bearer of the gods and lover of Zeus.
- Callisto
- A moon whose surface is possibly made of dark, colorless rock. It is also the second largest of the four and named after another of Zeus’ lovers, a Greek mythological nymph who was a daughter of the Arkadian King Lykaon and a hunting companion of the goddess Artemis.
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