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Showing posts with the label Judy Schmidt

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE: Jupiter

The latest photos from the   James Webb Space Telescope   were again noteworthy.  While earlier shots peered deep into space, the newest two featured Jupiter: See that white spot?  This is the Great Red Spot, a storm so big that it could swallow Planet Earth.  Why is the color white?  That circle reflects a lot of sunlight.  This is the usual graphic. The image also shows two tiny moons, Amalthea and Adrastea.   How many of you know how many moons are circling Jupiter ?  There are 80, plus other moonlets.   The largest moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, all discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610.  There is a naming-pattern to these moons:  lovers and sexual partners of Roman god Jupiter, or his Greek equivalent Zeus.  23 of them have yet to be named.  They should begin to add those of  Eros . Actually, there are Chinese astronomical records reporting in 356 BC that Gan De detected a moon of Jupiter, probably Ganymede, with the naked eye.  Reportedly, he used a tree to "oc