Amalthea, the third moon of Jupiter in order of distance from the planet, discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard on 9 September, 1892. Camille Flammarion suggested the name Amalthea for this moon. It is named after Amalthea, a nymph in Greek mythology. It is also known as Jupiter V. Amalthea is the largest of the inner satellites of Jupiter with a mean radius of about 83.5 ± 2.4 km. Irregularly shaped and reddish in colour, it is thought to consist of porous water ice with unknown amounts of other materials. Amalthea orbits 181,400 km from its parent planet Jupiter. Amalthea takes 0.498 Earth days to complete one orbit. Amalthea appears to give out more heat than it receives from the sun. This may be because, as it orbits within Jupiters powerful magnetic field, electric currents are included in the moons core. Alternatively, the heat could be from tidal stresses. Its surface features include large craters and high mountains. References: solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Jup_Amalthea, Retrieved 22 July, 2011; Barnard, E. E. (12 October, 1892). Discovery and observations of a fifth satellite to Jupiter. The Astronomical Journal 12 (11): 81–85.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 10:30:00 +0000