Jupiter's four best-known moons are the Galilean moons, discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. They are named Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, after figures in Greek mythology associated with ...

But the question of how many natural satellites the planet truly has is a bit more complicated. Jupiter's four best-known moons are the Galilean moons, discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610.

Jupiter moons Callisto and Ganymede are among the biggest in the solar system, and potential grounds for liquid water and alien life. NASA's JUICE mission will probe them for signs of both.

On this date, Jan. 7, 1610, astronomer Galileo Galilei, with a homemade telescope, noticed three points of light near Jupiter. Initially believing they were distant stars, Galileo’s repeated ...

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.

But the question of how many natural satellites the planet truly has is a bit more complicated. Jupiter's four best-known moons are the Galilean moons, discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610.

On Sept. 21, 2003, NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter and its moons came to an end. After 14 years of exploration, the Galileo spacecraft intentionally fell into Jupiter and disintegrated in the ...

At opposition, Jupiter’s shadow is directly behind it, but later in the year, you can watch one of the moons suddenly reappear some distance away from the planet’s disk.