Amalthea (moon)

Amalthea (pronounced "am al THEE a") is the third of Jupiter's known moonss. It was discovered on September 9 1892 by Edward Emerson Barnard using the 36 inch (91 cm) refractor telescope at Lick Observatory. Amalthea was the last moon to be discovered by direct visual observation (as opposed to photographically), and was the first new moon of Jupiter to be discovered since Galileo Galilei discovered the Galilean moons in 1610. It is named after the nymph of Greek legend who nursed the infant Jupiter with goat's milk.

The name "Amalthea" was not formally adopted by the IAU until 1975, although it had been in informal use for many decades earlier after its suggestion by Camille Flammarion. Before 1975 it was most commonly known simply by its Roman numeral designation as "Jupiter V".

Not to be confused with the asteroid 113 Amalthea.

Table of contents

1 Physical characteristics
2 References
3 External links

Physical characteristics

Amalthea is the reddest object in the solar system, even redder than the planet Mars. The reddish color is apparently due to sulfur originating from Io. Bright patches of green appear on the major slopes of Amalthea, but the nature of this color is currently unknown.

images showing Amalthea's irregular shape]]

Amalthea is irregularly shaped, with dimensions of 270 × 168 × 150 km; the long axis is oriented toward Jupiter. It is also heavily scarred by craters, some of which are extremely large relative to the size of the moon. Pan, the largest crater, measures 100 kilometers across and is at least 8 kilometers deep. Another crater, Gaea, measures 80 kilometers across and is probably twice as deep as Pan. Amalthea has two known mountains, Mons Lyctas and Mons Ida with local relief reaching up to 20 kilometers.

The combination of Amalthea's irregular shape and large size implies that Amalthea is a fairly strong, rigid body; if it were composed of ices or other weak materials its own gravity would have pulled it into a more spherical shape. Like all of Jupiter's moons it is tidally locked with the planet, its long axis pointing towards Jupiter at all times. Its composition is probably more similar to an asteroid's than any of the Galilean moons, and it may be captured. Like Io, Amalthea radiates more heat than it receives from the Sun. This is probably due to the electrical currentss induced within it by its orbit through Jupiter's magnetic field.

References

E. E. Barnard, Discovery and Observation of a Fifth Satellite to Jupiter, Astronomical Journal 12 (1892), 81–85

External links

Animation of Amalthea

Jupiter
Io \| Europa \| Ganymede \| Callisto
(For other moons, see: Jupiter's natural satellites)