The four largest – Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – were discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610 when he pointed the first astronomical telescope at the Moon, Venus and the planet Jupiter in quick ...

Loki Patera is 202 kilometres (126 mi) in diameter, covers 20,000 sq km (7,700 sq mi), and was the largest volcanic feature found on Io until these new observations revealed the hot spot in the south ...

Dave Dexter, composer of The Galilean Suite, four tone poems about the largest moons of Jupiter—Io, ... [+] Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. It's fair to say that of all the moons, it’s Io—the ...

Saturn, Jupiter’s outer neighbour, currently has 83 known satellites. The four larger moons mentioned above, also known as the 'Galilean moons', account for 99.997 percent of the total mass of Jupiter ...

Jupiter also boasts four bright, fast-moving moons: giant Ganymede, cratered Callisto, volcanic Io, and icy Europa. And there's no better time to brave the cold and explore some of the Galilean ...

Point them at Jupiter tonight—or any night during its bright opposition month—and you’ll notice four bright, white dots either side of it. You’re looking at its four Galilean Moons ...

Close-up of the craters and furrows on Ganymede's surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI Aside from being the biggest of ...

UC Riverside astrophysicist Stephen Kane clarified, saying, “We found that the Galilean moons of Jupiter … would very quickly destroy any large rings that might form.” ...

They are more commonly referred to as the Galilean moons of Jupiter owing to the fact that they were discovered by Galileo. The four Galilean moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – are ...

These pinpricks of light are actually Jupiter's four largest moons, now known as the Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Many of these celestial orbs are as remarkable as Jupiter ...

Galileo’s repeated observations over several nights and realized they were moons orbiting the gas giant. And thus, Io, Europa and Ganymede became known as the Galilean moons of Jupiter.

Much more recently, beginning in 1892, dozens of far smaller Jovian moons have been detected and have received the names of lovers (or other sexual partners) or daughters of the Roman god Jupiter or ...