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Concept information

solar system > natural satellite > Jupiter satellite

Preferred term

Jupiter satellite  

Definition

  • There are 80 known moons of Jupiter, not counting a number of moonlets likely shed from the inner moons. All together, they form a satellite system which is called the Jovian system. The most massive of the moons are the four Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, 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 nor the Sun. 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 his Greek equivalent Zeus. The Galilean moons are by far the largest and most massive objects to orbit Jupiter, with the remaining 76 known moons and the rings together composing just 0.003% of the total orbiting mass. (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Jupiter)

Broader concept

Entry terms

  • Jovian satellite

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URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/MDL-QCFZ48GF-M

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