Using this telescope, Galileo peered up towards the constellation Orion on January 7, 1610. His target was the planet Jupiter – an object brighter than the surrounding stars. To his surprise ...

noticed three points of light near Jupiter. Initially believing they were distant stars, Galileo’s repeated observations over several nights and realized they were moons orbiting the gas giant.

Among them was the discovery of four moons orbiting Jupiter. To Galileo, the moons proved that not everything in space circled the Earth, and therefore our planet was not the absolute center of ...

Europa Clipper - one of the most advanced spacecraft ever sent to another planet - aims to explore Jupiter's icy moon ...

They’re in space, orbiting ... the equator of Jupiter they all moved round… in a regular manner." This showed Galileo something extremely important - that the planets could orbit things ...

On this date, Jan. 17, 2002, the Galileo probe made it’s 33 rd pass of Jupiter’s moon, Io. After Voyager 1’s pass in 1979, Io was dubbed the most volcanically active place in the solar system.

In the 1990s, NASA's Galileo mission performed ... tidal heating in the grip of Jupiter's gravitational field — Io moves around Jupiter on an eccentric orbit, and its distance from the giant ...

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Jamie Carter is an award-winning reporter who covers the night sky. Jupiter as seen by NASA's Juno spacecraft on Sept. 20, 2024 during its ...

NASA's Juno spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since July 2016. The Clipper's impending trip to Europa represents the most ...

Jupiter's Folded Filamentary Region as photographed by NASA's Juno spacecraft during its Perijove ... [+] 36—and processed by Kevin M. Gill. NASA’s Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter has sent ...