When it comes to space exploration and missions mars is most commonly a top destination but the
mysterious icy moons of Jupiter are soon going to be stealing the spotlight the hunt for life beyond
earth has truly just begun and Jupiter's moons Europa, Ganymede, Io, and Callisto are proving
that they could be some great candidates so what this means is not only do we have a source of heat
outside of the goldilocks zone we have conditions under which life could be thriving welcome to
Factnomenal and today we will be exploring the fascinating worlds of Jupiter's moons
it's no secret that among the planets in our solar system Jupiter might be the most fascinating of
them all besides being the largest planet and located about 365 million miles from earth
588 million kilometers away what's particularly interesting about Jupiter is its abundance of
satellites at present Jupiter has 53 name moons and 26 others that are still unnamed
the ring planet saturn 2 has its fair share of satellites with about 82 moons in its system
but they are far from being anywhere near as intriguing as the ones on Jupiter some
would even argue that while Jupiter is an extraordinary planet just on its own
the mighty jovian moons are what actually make the planet so fascinating and for decades now
scientists and astronomers have been putting in work to uncover all of the mighty planet's
secrets a number of missions and flybys have been launched into Jupiter's orbit dating back to 1973
with the pioneers 10 and 11 as well as voyager 1 and 2 which gave us striking color images of
the planet and its moons the likes of which had never been seen before Galileo became the first
spacecraft to orbit Jupiter when it arrived at the gas giant in December 1995. it continued to
make important discoveries and observations from repeated elliptical orbits around the planet and
its accompanying satellites until September of 2003 NASA's New Horizons mission and Juno mission
have also contributed to the wealth of information we now have on these fascinating moons the big
four Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are the largest moons in Jupiter's system otherwise known as the
Galilean moons they were named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei who was the first to
spot them back in 1610 over the years nasa has given us some of the most breathtaking images
and we now have the opportunity to get up close and personal with these mystifying jovian moons
beginning with the smaller of the Galilean moons, Europa is the sixth closest Galilean moons and
also the sixth largest moon in the entire solar system ever since its discovery Europa has
constantly been in the limelight owing mostly to the fact that its icy white surface is among the
best candidates for hosting extraterrestrial life in our solar system scientists and astronomers are
convinced that just below the icy surface lies an ocean of liquid kind of like a water slushy
and if we've learned anything on planet earth it's that where there is liquid water
you could quite possibly find life one of the most stunning early images of the icy
moon was taken by the voyager which captured the complex array of streaks on the moon's surface
and very few impact craters as compared to its neighbors images released by nasa's Galileo
spacecraft in the early 1990s newly processed in 2014 clearly highlights the surface of Europa
its surface can be seen with a widely varied landscape and what appears to be ridges and
bands and small rounded domes there are also some disrupted spaces that appear on the surface
which geologists have dubbed as the chaos terrain another close-up shot displays the
area called crisscrossing bands which looks like a bunch of reddish colored entangled strings
here you can see the ridges that usually form when there is a crack in the surface and it opens and
closes repeatedly while more smoother bands can be seen with large wide and relatively flat features
red colored spots and shallow pits are seen like a smattering of freckles across the surface of
europa the spots and pits suggest that when the warmer ice moves upward the colder ice near
the surface sinks downwards creating these pits hinting that the frigid moon could be hiding an
ocean of water under its icy crust most recently in its 37th flyby in October 2021 the Juno
spacecraft captured the stunningly rare image of europa's northern pole region for the first time
taken at a distance of 82 000 kilometers Juno is expected to make an even closer encounter
with the Galilean moon in February of 2022 giving us a small taste of what's to come
the title for the largest galilean moon goes to ganymede it is also the largest in our solar
system this giant of a satellite is even bigger than the planet mercury nasa released a color
photo of Ganymede taken from voyager 2 when it was 1.2 million kilometers away showing off the
satellite in all its glory pictures taken from the Juno spacecraft JunoCam and the stellar reference
unit star camera have also shown in detail the distinct bright and dark terrain including some
craters a black and white picture of the moon's dark side that faces the opposite of the sun
points out its deep impact craters which were far more scarce in comparison to europa
the moon surface is made up of two types a darker cratered region and the other a lighter grooved
terrain the darker regions of Ganymede are old and rough with many believing the darker
crater terrain to represent the original crust of the satellite while the lighter more smooth
regions are believed to be younger this is the closest any spacecraft has come to the mega moon
and before the mission ends in September of 2025 Juno will continue to deliver valuable insights
into the magnetosphere ionosphere and icy shell the Hubble space telescope captured a stunning
well-timed image of the jovian giant as well just behind Jupiter almost as if playing peek-a-boo
not only is it big but oddly enough it is the only moon in the solar system that has
been found to have its very own magnetosphere the region where charged particles from the sun
are immediately deflected by a powerful magnetic field the magnetic field is also responsible for
causing auroras which can be compared to ribbons of glowing electrified gas in the north and south
poles much like its planet Jupiter Ganymede also has aurorae that change and seem to rock back
and forth as the magnetic field changes almost like its own firework show data from the Hubble
telescope now even suggests that there might be water vapor in its atmosphere which makes things
even more exciting like europa Ganymede could also have a hidden ocean just waiting to be discovered
it may not be the smallest or the largest but Io is by no means any less fascinating than its
Galilean companions a color enhanced image was also released by nasa from the Juno spacecraft
which shows Io and Europa peeking out behind Jupiter Io can be seen at an altitude of 481,000
kilometers since it's much closer to Jupiter and europa farther away at about 730 000 kilometers
as of the big four Io is the closest in proximity to Jupiter which is probably the reason why the
moon is sulfur yellow with red splotches and rather pock marked in appearance Io seems to be
a much more colorful place compared to its other Galilean neighbors as can be seen in this image
from the Galileo spacecraft which shows the face of Io that always faces away from Jupiter the more
red colored splotches across the surface represent the recent volcanic activities that cannot be more
than a few years old where europa is known for being frigid and icy Io is known for its abundance
of volcanoes the moon has about 400 or so active volcanoes and huge mountains in fact as of now
it is the most active known object in our solar system rivaled only by the ones on planet earth
and the ice volcanoes on Saturn's moon Enceladus the Galileo spacecraft captured the moment when
Io was undergoing an active volcanic eruption the stunning image shows the yellowish colored surface
of the satellite and its complex surface Io is right in the middle and constantly being pulled
due to the gravity being imposed by Jupiter and the tug of war between its neighbors thus
distorting its orbit causing it to flex and swoop around Jupiter it is this constant stretching and
pulling that has been credited for the intense heat that is formed in the moon's interior due
to friction which then sparks these massive eruptions across its surface when the voyager
1 spacecraft did a flyby of Io it was able to observe nine active volcanoes that were ejecting
very fine particles consisting mostly of ionized atoms of oxygen sulfur sodium and potassium about
several kilometers into space a giant plume from Io's trash star volcano was also photographed by
the new horizons long-range reconnaissance imager during a flyby of Jupiter there is so much about
Io that remains a mystery and the erupting moon could possibly be getting a whole entire mission
of its own as scientists and astronomers seek to discover more about the one-of-a-kind satellite
lying farthest away from Jupiter is the crater-filled dead moon Callisto like a true
war hero Callisto actually carries scars from eons and eons of meteorite impacts unlike its
fellow neighbors the surface of this moon may hold many clues to the early days and its formation
the moon's surface is so battered and old that studying it would be like opening a time capsule
and glimpsing into the past the multi-ring basin captured in the image from 1979 shows just how
battered and old the surface of Callisto really is the large bullseye that can be seen at the very
top is believed to be an impact basin which was formed in the moon's early days the outer ring of
the basin is about 2 600 kilometers across and the bright center is about 600 kilometers the Galileo
spacecraft also captured what is the only complete global color image of the moon scientists believe
that the bright areas are mainly ice while the darker areas are ice poor material there is hardly
any activity on Callisto's surface so where Io is active and busy rejecting particles into space
Callisto is geologically dead or is it data is now suggesting that not only does
Callisto hold the key to the past but it may be hiding a notion of its own just another surprising
possibility for life on one of Jupiter's moons and if there is anything you know about space it's
that it's utterly full of surprises and Callisto may not be so dead after all only time will tell
nasa has now revealed their future plans for the jovian moons as we may have merely just begun
to unravel the secrets of these celestial wonders europa clipper will be a mission solely dedicated
to study the smaller Galilean moon in 2023 while the European space agency has also dedicated its
mission Jupiter ice moons explorer or juice which just as its name suggests will closely
observe Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa it's an exciting time for Jupiter and its moons who knows
maybe we will discover some more celestial surprises very soon so what do you think
let us know in the comments what you think some of Jupiter's unnamed moon should be called
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