The four innermost moons of Jupiter
The four innermost moons of Jupiter
The top montage shows the best images so far of the four small inner moons of Jupiter. They were taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. In order of decreasing distance from Jupiter, these are Thebe, Amalthea, Adrastea and Metis. The views show true proportions, but were taken at different original resolutions, ranging from 5.4 kilometers per pixel for Amalthea to 7.5 kilometers per pixel for Thebe and Metis. Jupiter is on the right. The viewing geometries differ slightly from the views of the models in the bottom row, which show the shapes of the small satellites as seen from the direction of satellite motion (their "fronts" or "nose sides"). These shape models were computed from satellite outlines and shadow positions in still images, as well as from stereoscopic images taken by the Galileo camera during different orbits.
