Four Largest Satellites Of Jupiter Discovered By Galileo

Within days galileo figured out that these stars were actually moons in orbit of jupiter.

Four largest satellites of jupiter discovered by galileo. When galileo pointed his telescope at jupiter the largest planet in our solar system he made a startling discovery. A montage of jupiter and its four largest moons distance and sizes not to scale there are 79 known moons of jupiter. The rest are orders of magnitude smaller. Of these the four largest are known as the galilean moons having been discovered by galileo galilei using his telescope in 1610.

Jupiter s largest moon ganymede is larger than mercury while the other three are larger than pluto. Galileo made these sketches after discovering four moons orbiting jupiter in january 1610. The galilean moons or galilean satellites ɡ æ l ɪ ˈ l iː ə n are the four largest moons of jupiter io europa ganymede and callisto they were first seen by galileo galilei in december 1609 or january 1610 and recognized by him as satellites of jupiter in march 1610. 67 moons orbit the great gas giant jupiter.

They were discovered by galileo galilei and are known as the galilean moons. The planet had four stars surrounding it. 1 2 3 the most massive of the moons are the four galilean moons which were independently discovered in 1610 by galileo galilei and simon marius and were the first objects found to orbit a body that was neither earth. When jupiter is at opposition and closest to the earth the stellar magnitude of its four large moons is between 5 and 6.

As with all the galilean satellites europa is named after a. Galileo first observed the moons of jupiter on january 7 1610 through a homemade telescope. The four moons are io. A clock more precise than any human made clock of the time.

Europa along with jupiter s three other largest moons io ganymede and callisto was discovered by galileo galilei in january 1610. Galileo realized that since the moons of jupiter obeyed kepler s laws they could serve as a kind of heavenly clock. Of these four are comparable to the earth s moon in size. Probably the most significent contribution that galileo galilei made to science was the discovery of the four satellites around jupiter that are now named in his honor.

His discovery challenged common beliefs of his time about the bodies of our solar system. They were the first objects found to orbit a planet other than the earth. The moons later named io europa callisto and ganymede were the first discovered beyond earth.