Amalthea

Amalthea is one of the 63 moons of jupiter.

 It was named after the nymph who nursed the infant Jupiter with goats milk. It was dicovered in 1892 by the American astronomer Edward Barnard. Amalthea was the last moon in the solar system to be discovered through direct visual observation. It was also the first moon of Jupiter to be discovered since Galileo Galilei's discovery of the four  Gailean Moons in 1610. Amalthea has two known mountains, Mons Lyctas and Mons Ida. The surface of Amalthea is dark and reddish in color apparently caused by a dusting of sulfur from Io. Amalthea has dimensions of about 270x165x150 kilometers in diameter. The largest Crater on Amalthea measures 100 kilometers across and is at least 8 kilometers deep. Crater Gaea measures 80 kilometers across and is probably twice as deep as Pan.  [Amalthea is the reddest object in the solar system and it appears to give out more heat than it receives from the Sun. This may be because, as it Orbits within Jupiter's powerful magnetic field, electric currents are included in the moon's core. Or, the heat could be from tidal stresses. Amalthea rotates on its axes once for each orbit around Jupiter (which takes around one-half an Earth day for Amalthea) always keeping the same side facing the planet.] -solarviews.com

 Hamilton, Calvin . "Amalthea." solarviews.com. 1997-2005 . 16 Oct 2007 <http://www.solarviews.com/eng/amalthea.htm>.

By Chelsea Vasseur

 Create your own educational wiki!HelpPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS