MADRID, 23 (EUROPA PRESS)
Galileo Galilei was the first to observe Jupiter and its four largest moons through a telescope in January 1610. His observation that the moons changed position from one night to the next debunked the idea that everything revolved around the Earth. . The moons—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—became known collectively as the Galilean satellites, in his honor.
The plate shows images of the first observations of Jupiter and its moons made by Galileo Galilei from a copy of the Sidereus Nuncius preserved in the library of the Astronomical and Copernican Museum, at the headquarters of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) in Rome (Italy). ). The copy is one of the first 550 printed in 1610 in Venice.
The plaque was unveiled at Airbus Toulouse on January 20, where the craft will already be packed for its transatlantic flight to French Guiana, where it will be prepared for launch on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s spaceport.
Three of Jupiter’s largest moons—Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—contain vast amounts of water buried beneath their surfaces, in volumes far greater than Earth’s oceans.
These planet-sized moons offer tantalizing hints that different conditions for life might exist than our pale blue dot, orbiting giant planets rather than hot stars. JUICE will take 8 years to reach Jupiter and will begin its journey through these moons in 2034 orbiting Ganymede.
Jupiter and its family of large moons represent an archetype for gas giant planet systems throughout the Universe, and as such are some of the most attractive destinations in our Solar System, ESA reports.
